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

New Moon in Sagittarius

New Moon on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 0%. Lunar cycle is less than 1 day young.

* The exact date and time of this New Moon phase is on 21 December 2071 at 11:47 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 is entering ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

Wolf Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2072 after 15 days on 5 January 2072 at 18:13.

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 ∠1951".

New lunation 890 / 1843

At 11:47 on this date the Moon completes the old and enters a new synodic month with lunation 890 of Meeus index or lunation 1843 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 48 minutes. It is 41 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 6 hours and 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠138.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit is ∠138.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠166.3°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 9 December 2071 at 10:47 in ♋ Cancer 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 25 December 2071 at 10:25 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 399 619 km

The Moon is 399 619 km (248 312 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 839 km (252 177 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 14 December 2071 at 01:42 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 28 December 2071 at 08:59 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon at southern standstill

At 16:34 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-18.491°. This is the year's southernmost lunar standstill of 2071. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠18.460° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 4 January 2072 at 21:58.

Draconic month

7 days 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