Waxing
Gibbous ♒ Aquarius
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
First Quarter 57% illuminated
First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 57% and growing larger. The 8 days young Moon is in ♒ Aquarius.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 16 October 2018 at 18:02 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 is entering ♒ Aquarius
Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1768"
Lunar disc appears visually 8.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1926".
Hunter Moon after 7 days
Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2018 after 7 days on 24 October 2018 at 16:45.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Full Moon in Aries ♈ on 24 October 2018 at 16:45
- Last Quarter in Leo ♌ on 31 October 2018 at 16:40
- New Moon in Scorpio ♏ on 7 November 2018 at 16:02
- First Quarter in Aquarius ♒ on 15 November 2018 at 14:54
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.
Lunation 232 / 1185
The Moon is 8 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 232 of Meeus index or 1185 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.51 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 15 minutes. It is 3 hours and 3 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 shorter than mean
The length of the current synodic month is 29 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 40 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠49.6°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠49.6°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠79.7°.
Moon at apogee
Moon is at apogee at 19:16. It is 11 days after previous perigee on 5 October 2018 at 22:29 in ♌ Leo. Lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the next 14 days, until point of next perigee on 31 October 2018 at 20:05 in ♌ Leo.
Distance to Moon 404 227 km
This apogee Moon is 404 227 km (251 175 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 181 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 482 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.
Moon in descending node
Moon is in descending node in ♒ Aquarius at 12:03 crossing the ecliptic from North to South to meet ascending node 13 days later on 31 October 2018 at 03:46 in ♌ Leo.
Draconic month
13 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♌ Leo, the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the cycle.
Moon after southern standstill
1 day since the previous standstill on 15 October 2018 at 17:26 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.154°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.292° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 October 2018 at 18:34 in ♋ Cancer.
Syzygy in 7 days
In 7 days on 24 October 2018 at 16:45 in ♈ Aries 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.
