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

New Moon in Libra

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 1 October 2016 at 00:12 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2016 after 15 days on 16 October 2016 at 04:23.

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 ∠1794" and ∠1917".

New lunation 206 / 1159

At 09:03 on this date the Moon completes the old and enters a new synodic month with lunation 206 of Meeus index or lunation 1159 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 8 minutes. It is 2 hours and 19 minutes shorter 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 24 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 39 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠112.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit is ∠112.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠144.6°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 18 September 2016 at 17:00 in ♈ Aries 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 4 October 2016 at 11:02 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 399 556 km

The Moon is 399 556 km (248 273 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 100 km (252 339 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 28 September 2016 at 22:06 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 October 2016 at 09:43 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 23 September 2016 at 16:44 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.475° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.546° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 October 2016 at 06:03 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first 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