Quarter ♈ Aries
First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 49% and growing larger. The 7 days young Moon is in ♓ Pisces.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 18 December 2015 at 15:14 UTC.
Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
Moon is passing about ∠24° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 0.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1950".
Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2015 after 6 days on 25 December 2015 at 11:11.
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.
The Moon is 7 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 197 of Meeus index or 1150 from Brown series.
Length of current 197 lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 1 minute. It is 1 hour and 53 minutes longer than next lunation 198 length.
Length of current synodic month is 2 hours and 17 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 4 hours and 46 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠255.6°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠292.2°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep decreasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).
12 days after point of apogee on 5 December 2015 at 14:56 in ♎ Libra. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 2 days, until it get to the point of next perigee on 21 December 2015 at 08:53 in ♉ Taurus.
Moon is 364 238 km (226 327 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next 2 days until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 368 418 km (228 924 mi).
Moon is in descending node in ♓ Pisces at 15:13 on this date, it crosses the ecliptic from North to South. Moon will follow the southern part of its orbit for the next 13 days to meet ascending node on 31 December 2015 at 20:19 in ♍ Virgo.
13 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♍ Virgo, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
6 days after previous South standstill on 12 December 2015 at 08:15 in ♑ Capricorn, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-18.438°. Next 6 days the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠18.444° in the next northern standstill on 25 December 2015 at 07:30 in ♋ Cancer.
After 6 days on 25 December 2015 at 11:11 in ♋ Cancer, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.