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

First Quarter in Aquarius

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 48% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 2 November 2011 at 16:38 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Beaver Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2011 after 8 days on 10 November 2011 at 20:16.

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 ∠1848"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1848" and ∠1934".

Lunation 146 / 1099

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 146 of Meeus index or 1099 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes and it is 1 hour and 43 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 30 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 39 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠5.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠5.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠21.6°.

Moon before apogee

6 days since point of perigee on 26 October 2011 at 12:26 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 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 8 November 2011 at 13:20 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 387 967 km

The Moon is 387 967 km (241 072 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 177 km (252 387 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 29 October 2011 at 14:59 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 November 2011 at 00:35 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 29 October 2011 at 20:17 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.609° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠22.558° at the point of next northern standstill on 13 November 2011 at 07:23 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

3 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 10 November 2011 at 20:16 in ♉ Taurus 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