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

New Moon in Taurus

New Moon on . The 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 10 May 2013 at 00:29 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

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

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 in ♉ Taurus

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

Flower Moon after 14 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2013 after 14 days on 25 May 2013 at 04:25.

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 ∠1783" and ∠1900".

New lunation 165 / 1118

At 00:28 on this date the Moon completes the old and enters a new synodic month with lunation 165 of Meeus index or lunation 1118 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 28 minutes. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2013. It is 10 minutes longer than the next 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 44 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 19 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠143.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit is ∠143.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠168.8°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 27 April 2013 at 19:48 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 13 May 2013 at 13:31 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 402 034 km

The Moon is 402 034 km (249 812 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 827 km (252 169 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 9 May 2013 at 19:12 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 24 May 2013 at 00:40 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 28 April 2013 at 19:05 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.170° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.170° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 May 2013 at 12:30 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio 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