Moon Phase Today

About Lunar Phases

The moon phase today depends on where the Moon sits in its roughly 29.5-day orbit around Earth. All eight moon phase names belong to a single lunar cycle that repeats roughly every month. When the Moon moves from new moon toward full moon, we call it waxing — the lit portion grows night by night. A waxing crescent gives way to the first quarter, then a waxing gibbous, and finally a brilliant full moon. After that, the current moon phase enters its waning half: the illuminated face shrinks through a waning gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent back to new moon. Knowing is the moon waxing or waning tonight is easy for Northern Hemisphere observers — if it's lit on the right side it's waxing; lit on the left, it's waning. In the Southern Hemisphere the view is flipped: a waxing moon lights up from left to right. The next full moon and the full moon calendar above are computed from a precise table of astronomical events, so you always get the correct lunar phase tonight and moon phase tonight regardless of where you are on Earth.