Your guide to the Solar System and the night sky
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🌎  Observing from: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]
🌅 Sunrise: 6:03  ☀️ Transit: 12:06  🌅 Sunset: 18:09

The Moon

The Moon is currently in the constellation of Aquarius. The current Right Ascension of The Moon is 23h 14m 36s and the Declination is -09° 27’ 54” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]). The current magnitude of The Moon is -5.43 (JPL).

23h 14m 36s
-09° 27’ 54”
Aquarius
-5.43

Today's rise, transit and set times of The Moon from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change] (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 102.2°
Max altitude: 27.6°
Azimuth: 260.5°

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Available Resources

What is the Current Phase of the Moon?

Today the Moon is New Moon and its age is 28.43 days.

Phase: New Moon  Age: 28.43 days
Current Moon Sky Map

The Moon Position and Finder Charts

Below we provide The Moon finder charts showing where the object is right now in the sky with respect to the brightest stars. The first finder chart has a field of view of 50 degrees, while the second one has a field of view of 10 degrees. Click on each finder chart to access a full screen interactive Online Planetarium.

Map showing The Moon in Aquarius on March, 20 2023
Field of view: 50x30 degrees
View fullscreen
Map showing The Moon in Aquarius on March, 20 2023
Field of view: 10x6 degrees
View fullscreen
 = visible to the naked eye
 = binocular, brighter than 10th magnitude
= current altitude ≥ 30°   = current altitude < 30°   = below the horizon
Location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]

Also check out Where is The Moon?, a page that provides all the information needed to find The Moon in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

The Moon Distance from Earth

The distance of The Moon from Earth is currently 363,686 kilometers, equivalent to 0.002431 Astronomical Units. Light takes 1.2131 seconds to travel from The Moon and arrive to us.

363,686
0.002431
1.2131 seconds

The following chart shows the distance of The Moon from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Chart of the distance of The Moon from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)

The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth.

Closest Approach of The Moon to Earth

Between 1 January 1600 and 30 December 2499, the closest approach of The Moon to Earth happens on Wed Jan 13 2275 at a distance of 0.002382 Astronomical Units, or 356,377 kilometers:

Wed Jan 13 2275
356,377
0.002382

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

The Moon Brightness

The current visual magnitude of The Moon is -5.43.

-5.43
1,970.4”

The following chart is the predicted light curve (visual magnitude as a function of time) of The Moon, according to the most recent ephemerides data. Magnitude data is sampled with a 2 days interval and there might be inaccuracies for objects changing brightness very rapidly during the course of a few days. For comets there could be large discrepancies between the observed and predicted brightness because of their highly dynamic behaviour.

Chart of the magnitude of The Moon as a function of time

The Moon Physical Data

The following shows the known values of the most important physical parameters of The Moon. Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Physical Parameter Value Relative to Earth
Diameter 3474.2 km 0.2727
Mass 0.07342 x 1024 kg 0.0123
Density 3.344 gr/cm3 0.6065
Escape Velocity 2.38 km/s 0.2127
Sideral Rotation 655.7199 hours 27.3965
Absolute Magnitude -12.6
Geometric Albedo 0.136

The Moon 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of The Moon computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate The Moon in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Date Right AscensionR.A. DeclinationDec. MagnitudeMag Apparent DiameterDiameter Constellation
2023 Mar 13 15h 31m 11s -20° 58’ 50” -11.02 1,875.0” Libra
2023 Mar 14 16h 27m 09s -24° 41’ 57” -10.66 1,894.7” Ophiucus
2023 Mar 15 17h 27m 06s -27° 05’ 26” -10.24 1,914.8” Ophiucus
2023 Mar 16 18h 30m 02s -27° 50’ 34” -9.74 1,934.5” Sagittarius
2023 Mar 17 19h 34m 05s -26° 46’ 18” -9.15 1,952.2” Sagittarius
2023 Mar 18 20h 37m 04s -23° 53’ 38” -8.42 1,966.1” Capricornus
2023 Mar 19 21h 37m 24s -19° 25’ 54” -7.53 1,974.3” Capricornus
2023 Mar 20 22h 34m 29s -13° 45’ 30” -6.45 1,975.3” Aquarius
2023 Mar 21 23h 28m 36s -07° 19’ 05” -5.15 1,968.2” Aquarius
2023 Mar 22 00h 20m 35s -00° 33’ 29” -4.48 1,953.2” Pisces
2023 Mar 23 01h 11m 29s +06° 06’ 20” -5.76 1,931.6” Pisces
2023 Mar 24 02h 02m 13s +12° 18’ 39” -6.86 1,905.4” Aries
2023 Mar 25 02h 53m 40s +17° 45’ 11” -7.75 1,877.3” Aries
2023 Mar 26 03h 46m 18s +22° 11’ 11” -8.47 1,849.5” Taurus