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 52% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 28 February 2069 at 06:54 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 ∠13° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

Worm Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2069 after 7 days on 7 March 2069 at 22:35.

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 ∠1929"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1929" and ∠1936".

Lunation 855 / 1808

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 855 of Meeus index or 1808 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 56 minutes and it is 1 hour and 11 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 2 hours and 48 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 21 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠332.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠332.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠349.7°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 23 February 2069 at 06:27 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 10 March 2069 at 22:33 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 371 592 km

The Moon is 371 592 km (230 897 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 880 km (252 202 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 26 February 2069 at 13:32 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 12 March 2069 at 17:45 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 16 February 2069 at 07:37 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.335° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠20.222° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 March 2069 at 00:20 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 7 March 2069 at 22:35 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