Waxing
Gibbous ♉ Taurus
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
First Quarter 61% illuminated
First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 61% and growing larger. The 8 days young Moon is in ♈ Aries.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 1 January 2012 at 06:15 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
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 ∠25° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1768"
Lunar disc appears visually 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1951".
Wolf Moon after 6 days
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2012 after 6 days on 9 January 2012 at 07:30.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Full Moon in Cancer ♋ on 9 January 2012 at 07:30
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 16 January 2012 at 09:08
- New Moon in Aquarius ♒ on 23 January 2012 at 07:39
- First Quarter in Taurus ♉ on 31 January 2012 at 04:10
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 148 / 1101
The Moon is 8 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 148 of Meeus index or 1101 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.56 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 33 minutes. It is 1 hour and 22 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 49 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 14 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠42.1°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠42.1°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠70.8°.
Moon at apogee
Moon is at apogee at 20:19. It is 11 days after previous perigee on 22 December 2011 at 02:56 in ♏ Scorpio. Lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the next 15 days, until point of next perigee on 17 January 2012 at 21:28 in ♏ Scorpio.
Distance to Moon 404 580 km
This apogee Moon is 404 580 km (251 394 mi) away from Earth. It is 828 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 129 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.
Moon before descending node
10 days after ascending node on 23 December 2011 at 11:36 in ♐ Sagittarius. The Moon is located north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from North to South in descending node on 6 January 2012 at 14:30 in ♊ Gemini.
Draconic month
10 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.
Moon before northern standstill
9 days since the previous standstill on 23 December 2011 at 17:25 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.554°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠22.539° at the point of next northern standstill on 6 January 2012 at 21:46 in ♊ Gemini.
Syzygy in 6 days
In 6 days on 9 January 2012 at 07:30 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.
