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

New Moon in Virgo

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

* The exact date and time of this New Moon phase is on 16 September 2012 at 02:11 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♎ Libra later.

Harvest Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2012 after 13 days on 30 September 2012 at 03:19.

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 ∠1920" and ∠1909".

New lunation 157 / 1110

At 02:11 on this date the Moon completes the old and enters a new synodic month with lunation 157 of Meeus index or lunation 1110 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 52 minutes. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2012. It is 13 minutes shorter 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 52 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 17 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠312.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit is ∠312.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠334.3°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 7 September 2012 at 06:00 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 September 2012 at 02:52 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 373 235 km

The Moon is 373 235 km (231 917 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 749 km (227 266 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 7 September 2012 at 02:08 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 20 September 2012 at 12:54 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 8 September 2012 at 18:10 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.244° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.135° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 September 2012 at 00:11 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final 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