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

First Quarter in Cancer

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 60% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 19 March 2089 at 15:30 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

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

Moon phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Worm Moon after 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2089 after 5 days on 26 March 2089 at 09:20.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1971"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1926".

Lunation 1103 / 2056

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1103 of Meeus index or 2056 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.6 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 22 minutes and it is 3 hours and 4 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 38 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 25 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠244.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠244.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠280.3°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 7 March 2089 at 02:34 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 23 March 2089 at 00:07 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 363 687 km

The Moon is 363 687 km (225 985 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 366 668 km (227 837 mi).

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 14 March 2089 at 09:03 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 27 March 2089 at 05:54 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 19 March 2089 at 08:14 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.481° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.450° at the point of next southern standstill on 1 April 2089 at 11:18 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

20 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 26 March 2089 at 09:20 in ♎ Libra 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