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

New Moon in Cancer

New Moon on . The 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 19 July 2012 at 04:24 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Sturgeon Moon after 14 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2012 after 14 days on 2 August 2012 at 03:27.

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 ∠1811" and ∠1888".

New lunation 154 / 1107

At 15:02 on this date the Moon completes the old and enters a new synodic month with lunation 154 of Meeus index or lunation 1107 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.56 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 22 minutes. It is 1 hour and 52 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 38 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 25 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠217.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit is ∠217.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠248.7°.

Moon after apogee

4 days since point of apogee on 13 July 2012 at 16:47 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 29 July 2012 at 08:30 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 395 829 km

The Moon is 395 829 km (245 957 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 10 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 318 km (228 241 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 14 July 2012 at 20:55 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 July 2012 at 10:34 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 16 July 2012 at 01:18 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.665° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.592° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 July 2012 at 12:11 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

17 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