True scale: the Moon is 27% of Earth's width and 30 Earth widths away. The Sun would be about 390 times farther than the Moon, so it is off the screen.
Earth's axis keeps pointing the same way in space (23.4°), and so does the line where the Moon's orbit crosses Earth's (orange, the node line). Eclipses happen only when the Sun is near that line: in 2026, in February–March and August–September.
The real Moon right now, calculated in your browser for any city and date: phase, how much is lit, distance, moonrise and moonset, and where to look in the sky.
Times are for the city's own time zone, at sea level with a flat horizon; hills, buildings and haze can change what you see by a few minutes.
Every day of the month as the Moon looks in the evening (8 pm), with the exact times of the new moon, quarters, full moon and any eclipse, for the city chosen above. Tap a day to see it in detail.
Sunlight comes from the left. The inner circle shows the Moon at eight places on its orbit: the half facing the Sun is always lit. The outer ring shows how much of that lit half we can see from Earth. Tap a Moon or a picture.
Waxing means the lit part is growing (new → full); waning means it is shrinking (full → new). Crescent: less than half lit. Gibbous: more than half lit. A quarter moon looks like a half circle: it is a quarter of the way round the orbit.
A simple model to understand the pattern (for real times in your city, see Moon Phase Today). The Earth spins once a day, so the Moon rises and sets like the Sun. But the Moon is in a different place on its orbit each day, so it rises about 50 minutes later every day. Pick a phase and move the clock: the left picture shows where you are on the spinning Earth, the right picture shows your sky looking south (from the Northern Hemisphere).
From above the North Pole: the person turns with the Earth.
Your sky, facing south: east is on the left, west on the right.
| Phase | Rises | Highest in the sky | Sets | Best seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New moon | ~6 am (with the Sun) | ~noon | ~6 pm | not visible |
| Waxing crescent | ~9 am | ~3 pm | ~9 pm | evening, in the west after sunset |
| First quarter | ~noon | ~6 pm | ~midnight | afternoon and evening |
| Waxing gibbous | ~3 pm | ~9 pm | ~3 am | most of the night (evening) |
| Full moon | ~6 pm (at sunset) | ~midnight | ~6 am (at sunrise) | all night |
| Waning gibbous | ~9 pm | ~3 am | ~9 am | late night and early morning |
| Third quarter | ~midnight | ~6 am | ~noon | after midnight and in the morning |
| Waning crescent | ~3 am | ~9 am | ~3 pm | before sunrise, in the east |
Simple model: the Sun rises at 6 am and sets at 6 pm, as at the equinoxes. Real times shift with the season, your latitude and the Moon's tilted orbit, but the pattern is the same everywhere.
If the Moon's orbit were flat, the Moon would pass through the Earth's shadow at every full moon and block the Sun at every new moon. It is tilted by 5.1°, so most months it passes above or below. Try it in the 3D lab:
Seen from everywhere the Moon is above the horizon at that time.
Seen only from part of the Earth: total or annular along a narrow path, partial over a wide area. Never look at the Sun without proper eclipse glasses.
The Moon keeps the same face towards us, but not perfectly. Its orbit is an ellipse and tilted, so over a month it seems to nod and turn a little: libration. Thanks to it we can see about 59% of the Moon's surface over time, not just 50%. The Moon's distance also changes, from about 356,000 to 406,000 km, so some full moons look bigger: supermoons.
The wobble over the month (degrees; dot = the chosen day)
This is the moon phases diagram you draw and label in a test. The inner circle shows where the Moon is on its orbit (always half lit by the Sun); the outer ring shows what each one looks like from Earth. Switch between the labeled diagram, a blank one to test your memory, and a quiz where you place each label yourself. You can also download both versions or print a label worksheet.
Tap a word, then tap the numbered box it belongs to (on the diagram or in the list below). Tap a filled box to take the word back. On a phone, swipe the diagram sideways to see every number.
Ten questions: name the phase from a picture, plus questions about why phases happen and when the Moon rises.
Start at the new moon. Tap the pictures in the order they happen over one month (Northern Hemisphere). Tap a filled box to take a picture back.
Shine a torch on a ball in a dark room: the side facing the torch is bright and the far side is dark. The Sun does the same to the Moon, all the time. At new moon the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, so its lit half faces away from us and we see almost nothing. At full moon the Earth is between them (but not in a straight line), so we see the whole lit half.
After new moon we see a thin waxing crescent, then a first quarter (half the disc lit), a waxing gibbous and the full moon after about 15 days. Then it shrinks again: waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent, and back to new moon. One full cycle takes $29.5$ days. From the Northern Hemisphere a waxing Moon is lit on the right; a waning Moon on the left.
The fraction of the disc that looks lit depends on the angle $\theta$ between the Sun and the Moon, seen from Earth: $k = \tfrac{1}{2}(1-\cos\theta)$. At new moon $\theta = 0^\circ$ and $k=0$; at first quarter $\theta = 90^\circ$ and $k = 0.5$; at full moon $\theta = 180^\circ$ and $k = 1$. A crescent half-way to first quarter ($45^\circ$) shows only about 15% of the disc.
Press From above and Play a month: the Moon is always half lit, but the picture from Earth changes. Press From Earth to see it through a telescope, then True scale to see how far away it really is. Turn on Eclipse season and stop at full moon: the Moon turns red in the Earth's shadow. Finally, check the real Moon tonight in Moon Phase Today.
| Phase | About day | Angle Sun–Earth–Moon | Disc lit | Looks like (Northern Hemisphere) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New moon | 0 | 0° | 0% | not visible |
| Waxing crescent | 1–6 | 0–90° | 0–50% | thin, lit on the right |
| First quarter | 7.4 | 90° | 50% | right half lit |
| Waxing gibbous | 8–14 | 90–180° | 50–100% | mostly lit, dark edge on the left |
| Full moon | 14.8 | 180° | 100% | whole disc lit |
| Waning gibbous | 15–21 | 180–270° | 100–50% | mostly lit, dark edge on the right |
| Third (last) quarter | 22.1 | 270° | 50% | left half lit |
| Waning crescent | 23–29 | 270–360° | 50–0% | thin, lit on the left |
In the Southern Hemisphere the pictures are turned upside down, so left and right swap: a waxing crescent is lit on the left. Near the equator a crescent can look like a smile or a boat, lit from below or above.
The Moon goes once around the Earth, measured against the stars, in $27.3$ days (the sidereal month). But in that time the Earth has moved about $27^\circ$ along its own orbit around the Sun, so the Moon needs about two more days to get back to the same position relative to the Sun. New moon to new moon therefore takes $29.5$ days (the synodic month), and that is the cycle of phases.
The Moon spins on its axis exactly once for every trip around the Earth ($27.3$ days). This is called tidal locking: long ago, Earth's gravity slowed the Moon's spin until it matched its orbit. So the same face (with the dark patches, the maria) always points at us. The “far side” is not dark: it gets just as much sunlight; at new moon it is fully lit.
A solar eclipse needs the Moon to pass between the Sun and the Earth, so it can only happen at new moon. A lunar eclipse needs the Earth to be between, so it can only happen at full moon. But the Moon's orbit is tilted by about $5^\circ$ to Earth's orbit, so most months the Moon passes a little above or below the Sun–Earth line and nothing happens. Eclipses happen only when a new or full moon falls near one of the two places where the orbits cross: that gives between 4 and 7 eclipses a year somewhere on Earth (counting faint penumbral lunar eclipses).
Most diagrams, including the squeezed view of the 3D lab, draw the Moon far too close to the Earth. In reality the Moon is about a quarter of the Earth's width and about 30 Earth widths away (384,400 km on average); the Sun is about 109 Earth widths across and about 390 times farther than the Moon. Press True scale in the lab to see the Earth and the Moon at their real sizes and distance.
The Moon spins at a steady rate, but it moves faster near the Earth and slower far away on its elliptical orbit, so over a month we see a little way round its east and west edges (libration in longitude, up to about 8°). Its axis is also tilted to its orbit by about 6.7°, so we see a little over its north and south poles in turn (libration in latitude). Together, they let us see about 59% of the surface over time.
The Earth–Moon distance changes from about 356,000 km (perigee) to about 406,000 km (apogee). A full moon near perigee, often called a supermoon, looks about 14% wider and about 30% brighter than one near apogee (a micromoon). The difference is real but hard to notice without a side-by-side photo. The Moon looking huge near the horizon is a different thing: an illusion of the brain.
The two places where the Moon's orbit crosses the Earth's orbit are called the nodes. The line between them points in roughly the same direction in space for months (it slowly turns, once every 18.6 years), so the Sun lines up with it about twice a year. Around those times, called eclipse seasons and lasting about five weeks, a new moon brings a solar eclipse and a full moon a lunar eclipse. In 2026 the eclipse seasons are in February–March (annular solar eclipse 17 Feb, total lunar eclipse 3 Mar) and August–September (total solar eclipse 12 Aug, partial lunar eclipse 28 Aug).
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Moon’s diameter | 3,474 km (about ¼ of Earth’s 12,742 km) |
| Average Earth–Moon distance | 384,400 km (about 30 Earth widths; light takes 1.3 s) |
| Earth–Sun distance | about 150 million km (about 390 times farther than the Moon) |
| Synodic month (phases) | 29.53 days |
| Sidereal month (one orbit against the stars) | 27.32 days |
| Tilt of the Moon’s orbit | about 5.1° |
| Earth–Moon distance range | about 356,000 to 406,000 km |
| Tilt of Earth’s axis | 23.4° |
New moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third (last) quarter and waning crescent. Then the cycle starts again with a new moon about 29.5 days after the last one.
Key takeaway: new → crescent → quarter → gibbous → full, then back the other way.The Sun always lights half of the Moon. As the Moon orbits the Earth, we see different amounts of that lit half. At new moon the lit half faces away from us; at full moon it faces us. The Earth’s shadow does not cause the phases: it only falls on the Moon during a lunar eclipse.
Key takeaway: phases come from our changing view of the sunlit half, not from Earth’s shadow.About 29.5 days (29.53 days on average), from one new moon to the next. This is the synodic month. The Moon goes once around the Earth in 27.3 days measured against the stars, but needs about two more days to line up with the Sun again.
Key takeaway: 29.5 days from new moon to new moon.Waxing means the lit part we see is growing, from new moon to full moon. Waning means it is shrinking, from full moon back to new moon. From the Northern Hemisphere a waxing Moon is lit on the right and a waning Moon on the left.
Key takeaway: waxing grows, waning shrinks.The Moon is above the horizon for about 12 hours a day, just like the Sun, but its rising time changes with the phase. A first quarter moon rises around noon and is easy to spot in the afternoon sky; a third quarter moon is still up in the morning until about noon. A full moon is up all night and is hardly ever seen in the daytime sky.
Key takeaway: the Moon is up half of each day, at a time set by its phase.Because the Moon has gone a quarter (first quarter) or three quarters (third quarter) of the way around its orbit, counted from new moon. At that point we see half of the disc lit.
Key takeaway: the name counts the orbit, not the lit area.Everyone on Earth sees the same phase on the same night, but from the Southern Hemisphere the Moon appears upside down compared with the Northern Hemisphere. So a waxing crescent is lit on the left there, and on the right in the north. Try the hemisphere switch in the 3D lab.
Key takeaway: same phase everywhere; only the way it is turned changes.The Moon’s orbit is tilted about 5 degrees to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, so at most new moons the Moon’s shadow passes above or below the Earth. A solar eclipse happens only when a new moon falls near a crossing point of the two orbits; the same goes for lunar eclipses at full moon.
Key takeaway: the 5° tilt makes eclipses rare.Open the Moon Phase Today section on this page: it calculates the real phase, the percentage of the disc that is lit, the Moon’s age and distance, and moonrise and moonset for your city, live in your browser. The phase is the same for everyone on Earth on a given night; only the rise and set times and the tilt change with where you are.
Key takeaway: the phase is the same worldwide; times depend on your city.A full moon that happens when the Moon is near its closest point to the Earth (perigee); the closest full moons come within about 356,000–360,000 km. It looks about 14% wider and 30% brighter than a full moon at the farthest point (a micromoon). The Libration & Supermoons section compares this year’s closest and farthest full moons.
Key takeaway: a full moon near perigee: a bit bigger and brighter.Yes, about 59% over time. Because of libration, the Moon seems to rock a little from side to side and up and down during the month, so we can peek around its edges. At any single moment we still see only half of it (a little less, in fact, because we are close to it).
Key takeaway: libration shows us about 59% over time.