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

First Quarter in Aquarius

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 61% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 23 October 2050 at 12:10 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠14° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2050 after 5 days on 30 October 2050 at 03:16.

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 ∠1954"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1954" and ∠1930".

Lunation 628 / 1581

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 628 of Meeus index or 1581 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 53 minutes and it is 1 hour and 16 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit 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 9 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 54 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠212°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠212° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠245°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 12 October 2050 at 15:51 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 28 October 2050 at 09:08 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 366 921 km

The Moon is 366 921 km (227 994 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 380 km (224 551 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 17 October 2050 at 10:24 in ♏ Scorpio 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 30 October 2050 at 11:12 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 20 October 2050 at 12:04 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.790° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.778° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 November 2050 at 04:32 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 30 October 2050 at 03:16 in ♉ Taurus 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