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

First Quarter in Aquarius

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 55% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 18 October 2083 at 01:54 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 is entering ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2083 after 7 days on 25 October 2083 at 14:36.

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 ∠1939"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1939" and ∠1926".

Lunation 1036 / 1989

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1036 of Meeus index or 1989 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 52 minutes and it is 18 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2083. 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 52 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 17 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠325°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠325° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠343.6°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 13 October 2083 at 13:59 in ♏ Scorpio 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 29 October 2083 at 11:06 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 369 625 km

The Moon is 369 625 km (229 674 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 765 km (252 131 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♑ Capricorn at 19:32 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 2 November 2083 at 04:57 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 15 October 2083 at 18:28 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.557° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.436° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 October 2083 at 17:47 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 19:32 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 25 October 2083 at 14:36 in ♈ Aries 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