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

First Quarter in Aquarius

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 46% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 21 November 2050 at 20:25 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

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

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠25° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Beaver Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2050 after 7 days on 28 November 2050 at 15:09.

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 ∠1960"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1960" and ∠1943".

Lunation 629 / 1582

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 629 of Meeus index or 1582 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 37 minutes and it is 1 hour and 57 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 2 hours and 53 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 10 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠245°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠245° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠282.8°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 9 November 2050 at 06:44 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 25 November 2050 at 05:46 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 365 672 km

The Moon is 365 672 km (227 218 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 366 851 km (227 951 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 13 November 2050 at 17:21 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 26 November 2050 at 21:02 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon after southern standstill

4 days since the last southern standstill on 16 November 2050 at 17:54 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.791° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.809° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 November 2050 at 15:05 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 7 days

In 7 days on 28 November 2050 at 15:09 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