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

First Quarter in Cancer

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 51% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 28 March 2061 at 09:26 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Pink Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2061 after 7 days on 4 April 2061 at 21:47.

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 ∠1944"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1944" and ∠1922".

Lunation 757 / 1710

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 757 of Meeus index or 1710 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 42 minutes and it is 1 hour and 44 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 2 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 7 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠324.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠324.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠343.2°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 23 March 2061 at 21:11 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 8 April 2061 at 18:12 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 368 698 km

The Moon is 368 698 km (229 098 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 543 km (251 993 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 22 March 2061 at 23:32 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 5 April 2061 at 06:12 in ♎ Libra.

Moon at northern standstill

At 01:47 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠28.422°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-28.439° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 11 April 2061 at 10:51.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 4 April 2061 at 21:47 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