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

First Quarter in Taurus

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 53% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 3 February 2047 at 03:09 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

Snow Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2047 after 7 days on 10 February 2047 at 14:40.

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.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1780"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1780" and ∠1947".

Lunation 582 / 1535

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 582 of Meeus index or 1535 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 42 minutes and it is 36 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 3 hours and 58 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 5 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠96.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠96.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠133°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 1 February 2047 at 06:34 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 13 February 2047 at 00:46 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 402 608 km

The Moon is 402 608 km (250 169 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 892 km (226 112 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 25 January 2047 at 05:56 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 February 2047 at 17:13 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 22 January 2047 at 15:26 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.072° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.040° at the point of next northern standstill on 6 February 2047 at 02:09 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 10 February 2047 at 14:40 in ♌ Leo 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