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 62% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 15 March 2065 at 06:25 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 ∠10° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Worm Moon after 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2065 after 5 days on 22 March 2065 at 09:56.

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 ∠1825"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1825" and ∠1928".

Lunation 806 / 1759

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 806 of Meeus index or 1759 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 46 minutes and it is 17 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2065. 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 4 hours and 2 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 1 minute shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠129.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠129.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠159.2°.

Moon after apogee

4 days since point of apogee on 11 March 2065 at 13:11 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 23 March 2065 at 16:36 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 392 770 km

The Moon is 392 770 km (244 056 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 7 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 485 km (223 374 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 3 March 2065 at 20:26 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 18 March 2065 at 09:40 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 14 March 2065 at 23:55 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.648° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.548° at the point of next southern standstill on 27 March 2065 at 18:51 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 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 5 days

In 5 days on 22 March 2065 at 09:56 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