First Quarter Moon
First Quarter MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

First Quarter in Taurus

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 54% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 9 February 2079 at 03:11 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♉ Taurus

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

Snow Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2079 after 6 days on 15 February 2079 at 23:45.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1944".

Lunation 978 / 1931

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 978 of Meeus index or 1931 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.59 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 13 minutes and it is 2 hours and 32 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 29 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 34 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠261.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠261.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠296.6°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 26 January 2079 at 21:03 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 11 February 2079 at 08:13 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 363 419 km

The Moon is 363 419 km (225 818 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 141 km (229 374 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 7 February 2079 at 23:17 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 21 February 2079 at 02:05 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 30 January 2079 at 00:20 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.617° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.715° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 February 2079 at 07:40 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 15 February 2079 at 23:45 in ♌ Leo the Moon is going to be in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov