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

First Quarter in Pisces

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 46% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 30 November 2098 at 21:56 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 ♓ Pisces

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector.

Cold Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2098 after 8 days on 8 December 2098 at 13:45.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1946".

Lunation 1223 / 2176

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1223 of Meeus index or 2176 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 33 minutes and it is 2 hours and 10 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 49 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 14 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠78.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠78.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠115.9°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 00:33 about 13 days since last perigee on 16 November 2098 at 08:08 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 11 days until point of next perigee on 11 December 2098 at 21:02 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 404 413 km

This apogee Moon is 404 413 km (251 291 mi) away from Earth. It is 995 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 296 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 19 November 2098 at 13:21 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 3 December 2098 at 17:44 in ♈ Aries.

Moon after southern standstill

5 days since the last southern standstill on 25 November 2098 at 09:14 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.393° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.352° at the point of next northern standstill on 9 December 2098 at 15:23 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 8 December 2098 at 13:45 in ♊ Gemini 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