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 ♈ Aries.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 18 December 2004 at 16:40 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
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 ♈ Aries
Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1884"
Lunar disc appears visually 3.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1884" and ∠1950".
Cold Moon after 7 days
Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2004 after 7 days on 26 December 2004 at 15:06.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Full Moon in Gemini ♊ on 26 December 2004 at 15:06
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 3 January 2005 at 17:46
- New Moon in Capricorn ♑ on 10 January 2005 at 12:03
- First Quarter in Aries ♈ on 17 January 2005 at 06:58
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.
Lunation 61 / 1014
The Moon is 8 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 61 of Meeus index or 1014 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.44 days
Length of current 61 lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 34 minutes. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2004. It is 9 minutes longer than next lunation 62 length.
Lunation length shorter than mean
Length of current synodic month is 2 hours and 10 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 3 hours and 59 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠345.8°
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠345.8°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠1.4°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep increasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of apogee (∠180°).
Moon after perigee
6 days after point of perigee on 12 December 2004 at 21:30 in ♐ Sagittarius. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 8 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 27 December 2004 at 19:15 in ♋ Cancer.
Distance to Moon 380 443 km
Moon is 380 443 km (236 396 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 8 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 406 488 km (252 580 mi).
Moon before ascending node
10 days after its descending node on 8 December 2004 at 16:57 in ♎ Libra, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next day, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 21 December 2004 at 06:51 in ♉ Taurus.
Draconic month
25 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♉ Taurus, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
Moon after southern standstill
6 days after previous South standstill on 13 December 2004 at 00:27 in ♑ Capricorn, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-27.935°. Next 7 days the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠27.905° in the next northern standstill on 26 December 2004 at 14:10 in ♊ Gemini.
Syzygy in 7 days
After 7 days on 26 December 2004 at 15:06 in ♊ Gemini, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.