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

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 4 February 2074 at 04:02 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 is entering ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

Snow Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2074 after 6 days on 11 February 2074 at 21:05.

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 ∠1776"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1776" and ∠1946".

Lunation 916 / 1869

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 916 of Meeus index or 1869 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 23 minutes and it is 57 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 2 hours and 39 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 24 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠72.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠72.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠110°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 3 February 2074 at 14:44 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 15 February 2074 at 14:22 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 403 631 km

The Moon is 403 631 km (250 805 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 10 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 554 km (228 387 mi).

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 27 January 2074 at 14:36 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 11 February 2074 at 01:16 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 25 January 2074 at 06:55 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.239° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.239° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 February 2074 at 15:47 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

21 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 11 February 2074 at 21:05 in ♌ Leo 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