Gibbous ♐ Sagittarius
First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 60% and growing larger. The 8 days young Moon is in ♐ Sagittarius.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 15 August 2021 at 15:20 UTC.
Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1895".
Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2021 after 6 days on 22 August 2021 at 12:02.
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 8 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 267 of Meeus index or 1220 from Brown series.
Length of current 267 lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 2 minutes. It is 48 minutes longer than next lunation 268 length.
Length of current synodic month is 1 hour and 42 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 4 hours and 27 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠264.3°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠297.8°. 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°).
14 days after point of apogee on 2 August 2021 at 07:35 in ♉ Taurus. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next day, until it get to the point of next perigee on 17 August 2021 at 09:23 in ♐ Sagittarius.
Moon is 363 314 km (225 753 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next day until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 369 127 km (229 365 mi).
Moon is in descending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 16:04 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 30 August 2021 at 05:13 in ♊ Gemini.
13 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is moving from the middle to the last part of it.
10 days after previous North standstill on 5 August 2021 at 16:46 in ♋ Cancer, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠25.685°. Next 2 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-25.761° in the next southern standstill on 18 August 2021 at 22:24 in ♑ Capricorn.
After 6 days on 22 August 2021 at 12:02 in ♒ Aquarius, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.