Moon Phase Today

The Moon phase is the shape of the sunlit part of the Moon we see from Earth. The phase name, from New Moon through the crescents and quarters to Full Moon, follows from the angle between the Sun and Moon as seen from Earth, called the elongation. Near 0° the Moon sits between us and the Sun and looks dark; at 180° it is opposite the Sun and fully lit.

The illumination figure is the share of the Moon's visible disc lit by the Sun. A New Moon is close to 0%, a First or Last Quarter close to 50%, and a Full Moon close to 100%. The Moon gains about twelve degrees a day on the Sun, so the number changes noticeably from one day to the next.

The card also shows the Moon's zodiac sign and its degree within that sign, with the Sun's sign alongside. The positions come from high-precision ephemerides, the same engine professional astrology software uses.

The Moon has no light of its own; we only ever see the half the Sun lights up. Over about 29.5 days, one synodic month, the angle between Sun, Earth and Moon keeps changing, and so does how much of that lit half faces us. That one piece of geometry produces every phase, always in the same order.

The cycle starts at the New Moon, when the Moon is roughly between Earth and the Sun and its lit side faces away from us. A few days later a thin Waxing Crescent appears and fills out to the First Quarter, with half the disc lit. It swells through Waxing Gibbous to the Full Moon, when Earth is between the Sun and Moon and the whole near side shines. Then the light shrinks in reverse order (Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter, Waning Crescent) until the next New Moon.

Waxing means the lit part is growing toward Full; waning means it is shrinking back toward New. The four main phases (New, First Quarter, Full, Last Quarter) are exact moments, while the crescent and gibbous phases name the stretches in between. The label on the card shows where today falls.

Your Moon sign is the sign the Moon was in when you were born. That is a different thing from the Moon phase, which describes the sky on a given day for everyone. Most people know their Sun sign; astrologers treat the Moon sign as the more private layer, the instinctive reactions and emotional needs under the face you show the world.

The Moon is the fastest body in a chart and changes sign about every two and a half days, so finding your Moon sign takes an accurate birth date and, ideally, a birth time. The card above shows where the Moon is today. For where it was on your birthday, run a free birth chart, which places your Moon, Sun and Rising.

The two are worth reading side by side. Today's Moon sign describes the emotional weather many people share; your natal Moon describes your own baseline. When the moving Moon passes over planets in your chart, the day's mood tends to hit closer to home.

The Moon travels about twelve degrees a day relative to the Sun and completes the cycle in about 29.5 days, so the share of the lit face we see shifts every day, and the illumination and often the phase name shift with it.

The same motion makes the Moon rise and set almost an hour later each day. Over a month those small daily steps add up to the whole New-to-Full-to-New cycle, which then starts again.

The time stamp on the card shows the exact moment the figures were calculated for.