First Quarter on

Moon phase on 5 January 2017 Thursday is First Quarter, 7 days young Moon is in Aries.

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Moon phase for

Lunar calendar 2017 | January 2017

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

First Quarter 47% illuminated

First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 47% and growing larger. The 7 days young Moon is in ♈ Aries.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 5 January 2017 at 19:47 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 ∠11° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1944"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1944" and ∠1951".

Wolf Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2017 after 6 days on 12 January 2017 at 11:34.

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 210 / 1163

The Moon is 7 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 210 of Meeus index or 1163 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.72 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 14 minutes. It is 2 hours and 23 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 4 hours and 30 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 33 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit position on

True anomaly ∠223.4°

At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠223.4°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠259.5°.

Moon before apogee

11 days after point of apogee on 25 December 2016 at 05:55 in ♏ Scorpio. The lunar orbit is getting narrow, while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days, until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 January 2017 at 06:07 in ♊ Gemini.

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Distance to Moon 368 704 km

The Moon is 368 704 km (229 102 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 242 km (225 708 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 2 January 2017 at 18:14 in ♒ Aquarius. The Moon is located south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from South to North in ascending node on 15 January 2017 at 10:45 in ♍ Virgo.

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Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♍ Virgo, the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the cycle.

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Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the previous standstill on 29 December 2016 at 03:30 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.958°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.932° at the point of next northern standstill on 11 January 2017 at 09:32 in ♋ Cancer.

Previous standstillNext standstill

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 12 January 2017 at 11:34 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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