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

First Quarter in Pisces

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 49% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 19 December 2099 at 14:22 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 ♓ Pisces

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♈ Aries later.

Cold Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2099 after 8 days on 27 December 2099 at 12:58.

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 ∠1771"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1771" and ∠1950".

Lunation 1236 / 2189

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1236 of Meeus index or 2189 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.57 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 47 minutes and it is 2 hours and 12 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 3 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠49.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠49.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠81.3°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 8 December 2099 at 17:50 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 20 December 2099 at 13:16 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 404 808 km

The Moon is 404 808 km (251 536 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 339 km (251 245 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♓ Pisces at 01:02 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 1 January 2100 at 21:13 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after southern standstill

6 days since the last southern standstill on 12 December 2099 at 13:59 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.351° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.345° at the point of next northern standstill on 26 December 2099 at 23:34 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 01:02 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 27 December 2099 at 12:58 in ♋ Cancer 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