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

New Moon in Capricorn

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 17 January 2018 at 02:17 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠20° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Wolf Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2018 after 15 days on 31 January 2018 at 13:27.

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 ∠1770" and ∠1950".

New lunation 222 / 1175

At 06:30 on this date the Moon completes the old and enters a new synodic month with lunation 222 of Meeus index or lunation 1175 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.82 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 47 minutes. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2018. It is 59 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 7 hours and 3 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length and it is the longest synodic month length of 21st century.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠173.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit is ∠173.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠198.1°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 15 January 2018 at 02:10 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 January 2018 at 09:54 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 404 976 km

The Moon is 404 976 km (251 640 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 995 km (223 069 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 4 January 2018 at 07:48 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 18 January 2018 at 14:28 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 15 January 2018 at 16:28 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.048° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.027° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 January 2018 at 11:32 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo 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