Waxing
Gibbous ♈ Aries
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
First Quarter 58% illuminated
First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 58% and growing larger. The 8 days young Moon is in ♓ Pisces.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 11 December 2002 at 15:49 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Moon phase and lunation details
Moonrise and moonset
Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
Moon in ♓ Pisces
Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♈ Aries later.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1776"
Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1776" and ∠1949".
Cold Moon after 7 days
Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2002 after 7 days on 19 December 2002 at 19:10.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Full Moon in Gemini ♊ on 19 December 2002 at 19:10
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 27 December 2002 at 00:31
- New Moon in Capricorn ♑ on 2 January 2003 at 20:23
- First Quarter in Aries ♈ on 10 January 2003 at 13:15
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.
Lunation 36 / 989
The Moon is 8 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 36 of Meeus index or 989 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.53 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes. It is 1 hour and 38 minutes shorter than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increasing with the 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 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠32.1°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠32.1°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠56.5°.
Moon before perigee
10 days after point of perigee on 2 December 2002 at 08:53 in ♏ Scorpio. 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 14 December 2002 at 03:57 in ♈ Aries.
Distance to Moon 403 586 km
The Moon is 403 586 km (250 777 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 912 km (251 601 mi).
Moon before ascending node
8 days after descending node on 4 December 2002 at 02:12 in ♐ Sagittarius. The Moon is located south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from South to North in ascending node on 18 December 2002 at 06:47 in ♊ Gemini.
Draconic month
21 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the cycle.
Moon after southern standstill
6 days since the previous standstill on 6 December 2002 at 07:00 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.808°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.790° at the point of next northern standstill on 20 December 2002 at 18:29 in ♋ Cancer.
Syzygy in 7 days
In 7 days on 19 December 2002 at 19:10 in ♊ Gemini 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.
