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

First Quarter in Gemini

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 54% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 4 March 2066 at 02:48 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

Worm Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2066 after 7 days on 11 March 2066 at 22:48.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1935".

Lunation 818 / 1771

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 818 of Meeus index or 1771 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.56 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 23 minutes and it is 53 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 39 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 24 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠61.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠61.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠96.6°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 06:48 about 12 days since last perigee on 20 February 2066 at 01:15 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 16 March 2066 at 19:50 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 404 251 km

This apogee Moon is 404 251 km (251 190 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 157 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 458 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 20 February 2066 at 21:32 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 6 March 2066 at 20:17 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon at northern standstill

At 15:15 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠25.268°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-25.141° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 18 March 2066 at 04:52.

Draconic month

11 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 11 March 2066 at 22:48 in ♍ Virgo 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