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

New Moon in Capricorn

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 31 December 2005 at 03:12 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Wolf Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2006 after 13 days on 14 January 2006 at 09:48.

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 ∠1946" and ∠1951".

New lunation 74 / 1027

At 03:12 on this date the Moon completes the old and enters a new synodic month with lunation 74 of Meeus index or lunation 1027 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 3 minutes. It is 47 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 41 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 28 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠329.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit is ∠329.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠347.5°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 21 December 2005 at 02:49 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 January 2006 at 22:50 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 368 331 km

The Moon is 368 331 km (228 870 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 750 km (224 781 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 24 December 2005 at 10:43 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 6 January 2006 at 05:01 in ♈ Aries.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 30 December 2005 at 13:57 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.387° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.410° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 January 2006 at 13:12 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

21 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries 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