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 50% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 29 February 2088 at 11:26 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 ∠11° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

Worm Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2088 after 6 days on 7 March 2088 at 10:36.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1936".

Lunation 1090 / 2043

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1090 of Meeus index or 2043 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 51 minutes and it is 2 hours and 27 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 7 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 56 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠278.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠278.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠309.1°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 14:18 about 14 days since last apogee on 15 February 2088 at 13:47 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 13 days until point of next apogee on 14 March 2088 at 10:38 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 370 217 km

This perigee Moon is 370 217 km (230 042 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's farthest perigee of 2088. It is 7 709 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 139 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 27 February 2088 at 04:19 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 11 March 2088 at 08:26 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 16 February 2088 at 15:48 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.751° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠19.628° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 March 2088 at 05:13 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

16 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 6 days

In 6 days on 7 March 2088 at 10:36 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