Stargazer’s Almanac

The Moon

Our nearest neighbour, night by night

The Moon is the easiest thing in the sky to observe and the biggest obstacle to seeing everything else. Here’s where it is in its cycle, calculated for any date you choose.

Sunday 13 September 2026 · 00:00 UTC

Waxing Crescent

Illuminated
4%
Age
1.9 days
Next full moon
Sat 26 Sep, 16:49
Next new moon
Sat 10 Oct, 15:50

6% through this lunar cycle

Practically no moonlight: the darkest skies of the month.

Now

Moon calendar

September 2026

1 84% 2 75% 3 65% 4 54% 5 42% 6 31% 7 21% 8 12% 9 6% 10 2% 11 New 12 1% 13 4% 14 9% 15 16% 16 24% 17 33% 18 42% 19 51% 20 61% 21 70% 22 78% 23 86% 24 92% 25 97% 26 Full 27 100% 28 98% 29 93% 30 87%

Phases shown at 00:00 UTC. Select a day to see its details above.

Principal phases

The next eight

Times are calculated with the algorithms in Jean Meeus’s Astronomical Algorithms and agree with published tables to within a few minutes. Convert from UTC to your local time zone.

Deep-sky observers plan around the week either side of the new moon. Photographers chasing the Milky Way do the same.

  1. Full Moon
  2. New Moon
  3. Full Moon
  4. New Moon
  5. Full Moon
  6. New Moon
  7. Full Moon
  8. New Moon

Phase guide

When each phase is up, and what it costs you

Each day the Moon rises about 50 minutes later than the day before. That simple rhythm tells you when the sky will be dark.

PhaseRisesBest seenFor stargazing
New Moon Sunrise Not visible Best
Waxing Crescent Mid-morning West after sunset Good
First Quarter Around noon Evening, sets ~midnight Fair
Waxing Gibbous Afternoon Most of the night Poor
Full Moon Sunset All night Worst
Waning Gibbous Evening Most of the night Poor
Last Quarter Around midnight After midnight Fair
Waning Crescent Before dawn East before sunrise Good

Observing the Moon

Look at the edge, not the full face

The full Moon is dazzling but flat: sunlight hits it head-on and casts no shadows. The best views come along the terminator, the line between day and night, where low sunlight throws crater walls and mountains into sharp relief.

Around first quarter the terminator crosses the Moon’s most rugged regions, and it’s high in the sky at a comfortable evening hour.

  • Binoculars show the dark “seas” (maria) and the largest craters.
  • Earthshine: on a thin crescent, the “dark” part glows faintly with sunlight reflected off Earth.
  • Any small telescope reveals hundreds of craters; a moon filter takes the glare off.
  • Watch it move: the Moon shifts its own width against the stars about every hour.

Further reading

  • Moon Phases NASA Science
  • Astronomical Algorithms, 2nd edition (1998) Jean Meeus, Willmann-Bell. The source of this site’s Moon calculations