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

New Moon in Taurus

New Moon on . 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 16 May 2026 at 20:01 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

Flower Moon after 14 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2026 after 14 days on 31 May 2026 at 08:45.

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 ∠1963" and ∠1897".

New lunation 326 / 1279

At 20:01 on this date the Moon completes the old and enters a new synodic month with lunation 326 of Meeus index or lunation 1279 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.29 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 6 hours and 53 minutes. It is 4 minutes longer 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours and 51 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 18 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠347.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit is ∠347.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠2.5°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 4 May 2026 at 22:30 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 17 May 2026 at 13:48 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 365 149 km

The Moon is 365 149 km (226 893 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 074 km (222 497 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 11 May 2026 at 04:36 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 23 May 2026 at 15:26 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 5 May 2026 at 11:35 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.109° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.051° at the point of next northern standstill on 18 May 2026 at 19:38 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces 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