First Quarter on

Moon phase on 28 December 2006 Thursday is First Quarter, 8 days young Moon is in Aries.

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Moon phase for

Lunar calendar 2006 | December 2006

First Quarter phase
First Quarter phase
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

First Quarter 60% illuminated

First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 60% and growing larger. The 8 days young Moon is in ♈ Aries.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 27 December 2006 at 14:48 UTC.

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Moon phases for next 7 days

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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 ∠18° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1971"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1951".

Wolf Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2007 after 6 days on 3 January 2007 at 13:57.

Upcoming main Moon phases

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 86 / 1039

The Moon is 8 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 86 of Meeus index or 1039 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.58 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 1 minute. It is 1 hour and 46 minutes longer than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decreasing with the 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 16 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 47 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit position on

True anomaly ∠276.5°

At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠276.5°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠308.6°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 01:48. It is 14 days after previous apogee on 13 December 2006 at 18:55 in ♍ Virgo. Lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the next 13 days, until point of next apogee on 10 January 2007 at 16:26 in ♎ Libra.

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Distance to Moon 370 321 km

This perigee Moon is 370 321 km (230 107 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's farthest perigee of 2006. It is 7 813 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 35 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 26 December 2006 at 10:36 in ♓ Pisces. The Moon is located north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from North to South in descending node on 8 January 2007 at 17:44 in ♍ Virgo.

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Draconic month

2 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♓ Pisces, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.

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Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the previous standstill on 20 December 2006 at 13:40 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.378°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.396° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 January 2007 at 11:57 in ♊ Gemini.

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Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 3 January 2007 at 13:57 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.

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