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

First Quarter in Cancer

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 31 March 2031 at 00:32 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠16° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Pink Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2031 after 7 days on 7 April 2031 at 17:21.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1920".

Lunation 386 / 1339

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 386 of Meeus index or 1339 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.55 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 8 minutes and it is 1 hour and 12 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 24 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 39 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠70.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠70.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠106.4°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 30 March 2031 at 15:24 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 11 April 2031 at 19:13 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 405 088 km

The Moon is 405 088 km (251 710 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 996 km (228 662 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 27 March 2031 at 14:22 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 10 April 2031 at 14:56 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 29 March 2031 at 04:58 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.242° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.160° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 April 2031 at 00:31 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 7 April 2031 at 17:21 in ♎ Libra 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