First
Quarter ♑ Capricorn
Moon phase on 2 October 2003 Thursday is First Quarter, 7 days young Moon is in Capricorn.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinFirst Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 47% and growing larger. The 7 days young Moon is in ♑ Capricorn.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 2 October 2003 at 19:09 UTC.
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Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 1.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1950" and ∠1917".
Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2003 after 7 days on 10 October 2003 at 07:27.
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.
The Moon is 7 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 46 of Meeus index or 999 from Brown series.
Length of current 46 lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 41 minutes. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2003. It is 28 minutes shorter than next lunation 47 length.
Length of current synodic month is 3 hours and 3 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 3 hours and 6 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠325.5°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠344°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep decreasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).
4 days after point of perigee on 28 September 2003 at 05:59 in ♏ Scorpio. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 11 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 14 October 2003 at 02:27 in ♊ Gemini.
Moon is 367 606 km (228 420 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 11 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 405 692 km (252 085 mi).
3 days after its descending node on 29 September 2003 at 10:34 in ♏ Scorpio, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 10 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 13 October 2003 at 03:40 in ♉ Taurus.
16 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♉ Taurus, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
At 17:06 on this date the Moon is meeting its South standstill point, when it will reach southern declination of ∠-26.963°. Next 14 days the lunar orbit will move in opposite northward direction to face North declination of ∠27.054° in its northern standstill point on 17 October 2003 at 03:41 in ♋ Cancer.
After 7 days on 10 October 2003 at 07:27 in ♈ Aries, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.