Waxing
Crescent ♎ Libra
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
New Moon
New Moon is the lunar phase on . Surface of the Moon disc is not illuminated. The less than 1 day young Moon is in ♍ Virgo.
* The exact date and time of this New Moon phase is on 16 September 2012 at 02:11 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Moon phase and lunation details
Moonrise and moonset
Moon rises at sunrise and sets at sunset. It's part facing the Earth is completely in shadow.
Moon in ♍ Virgo
Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♎ Libra later.
Apparent angular diameter
Lunar disc is not visible from Earth. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1920" and ∠1909".
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.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- First Quarter in Sagittarius ♐ on 22 September 2012 at 19:41
- Full Moon in Aries ♈ on 30 September 2012 at 03:19
- Last Quarter in Cancer ♋ on 8 October 2012 at 07:33
- New Moon in Libra ♎ on 15 October 2012 at 12:02
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.
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 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 decreasing with the 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 position on
True anomaly ∠312.9°
The true anomaly is ∠312.9°. At the beginning of the next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠334.3°.
Moon before apogee
9 days after 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 located south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from South to North in ascending node on 20 September 2012 at 12:54 in ♏ Scorpio.
Draconic month
23 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the cycle.
Moon before southern standstill
7 days since the previous 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.
Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy
The Moon is in a New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and thus forming Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy alignment.
