First
Quarter ♉ Taurus
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
First Quarter 53% illuminated
First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 53% and growing larger. The 8 days young Moon is in ♈ Aries.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 8 January 2014 at 03:39 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
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 ∠22° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1873"
Lunar disc appears visually 4.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1873" and ∠1951".
Wolf Moon after 7 days
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2014 after 7 days on 16 January 2014 at 04:52.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Full Moon in Cancer ♋ on 16 January 2014 at 04:52
- Last Quarter in Scorpio ♏ on 24 January 2014 at 05:19
- New Moon in Aquarius ♒ on 30 January 2014 at 21:39
- First Quarter in Taurus ♉ on 6 February 2014 at 19:22
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 173 / 1126
The Moon is 8 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 173 of Meeus index or 1126 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.43 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 24 minutes. It is 3 minutes longer 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 shorter than mean
The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 20 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 49 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠353°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠353°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠8.3°.
Moon after perigee
6 days after point of perigee on 1 January 2014 at 21:00 in ♑ Capricorn. The lunar orbit is getting widen, while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days, until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 16 January 2014 at 01:53 in ♋ Cancer.
Distance to Moon 382 596 km
The Moon is 382 596 km (237 734 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 537 km (252 610 mi).
Moon before descending node
11 days after ascending node on 28 December 2013 at 00:21 in ♏ Scorpio. The Moon is located north of the ecliptic over the following day, until the lunar orbit crosses from North to South in descending node on 9 January 2014 at 11:26 in ♉ Taurus.
Draconic month
11 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♏ Scorpio, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.
Moon before northern standstill
8 days since the previous standstill on 31 December 2013 at 04:49 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.537°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.501° at the point of next northern standstill on 13 January 2014 at 08:14 in ♊ Gemini.
Syzygy in 7 days
In 7 days on 16 January 2014 at 04:52 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.
