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

First Quarter in Sagittarius

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 55% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 27 August 2028 at 01:36 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

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

Moon phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

Harvest Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2028 after 7 days on 3 September 2028 at 23:48.

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 ∠1886"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1886" and ∠1900".

Lunation 354 / 1307

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 354 of Meeus index or 1307 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.32 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 40 minutes and it is 53 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2028. 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 5 hours and 4 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 5 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠347.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠347.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠2.9°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 21 August 2028 at 04:10 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 4 September 2028 at 20:03 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 379 956 km

The Moon is 379 956 km (236 094 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 398 km (252 524 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 18 August 2028 at 02:04 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 August 2028 at 20:39 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 15 August 2028 at 17:21 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.876° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-25.819° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 August 2028 at 06:28 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 3 September 2028 at 23:48 in ♓ Pisces 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