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

New Moon in Taurus

New Moon on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 0%. Lunar cycle is 1 day young.

* The exact date and time of this New Moon phase is on 20 May 2012 at 23:47 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises at sunrise and sets at sunset. It's part facing the Earth is completely in shadow.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠25° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

Strawberry Moon after 14 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2012 after 14 days on 4 June 2012 at 11:12.

Spring tide

There is high New Moon ocean tide on this date. Combined Sun and Moon gravitational tidal force working on Earth is strong, because of the Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy alignment.

Apparent angular diameter

Lunar disc is not visible from Earth. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1896".

New lunation 153 / 1106

At 23:47 on this date the Moon completes the old and enters a new synodic month with lunation 153 of Meeus index or lunation 1106 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes. It is 1 hour and 53 minutes longer than the next 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 2 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠191.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit is ∠191.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠217.1°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 19 May 2012 at 16:13 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 3 June 2012 at 13:19 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 405 327 km

The Moon is 405 327 km (251 859 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 483 km (222 751 mi).

Moon before descending node

13 days after ascending node on 7 May 2012 at 09:43 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 21 May 2012 at 09:21 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 8 May 2012 at 06:18 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.719° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠21.709° at the point of next northern standstill on 22 May 2012 at 11:13 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy

The Moon is in a New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and thus forming Sun-Moon-Earth 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