The Moon
What Phase is the Moon in?
Today the Moon is Waxing Crescent and its age is 4.50 days.
Current Moon Sky Map
The Moon Position
The Moon is currently in the constellation of Aquarius. The current Right Ascension is 00h 22m 17s and the Declination is -03° 13’ 44”.
Simplified sky chart showing where The Moon is right now in the sky with respect to the brightest stars and constellations (see full screen Online Planetarium)
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
The distance of The Moon from Earth is currently 405,428 kilometers, equivalent to 0.002710 Astronomical Units. Light takes 1.3524 seconds to travel from The Moon and arrive to us.
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.
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 January 2013 and December 2100 the closest approach of The Moon to Earth happens on Sun Nov 26 2034 at a distance of 0.00238278 Astronomical Units, or 356,459 kilometers:
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 -8.41.
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.
The Moon rise and set times
Location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London
Today's The Moon rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change] are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):
The rise and set times are defined as the time at which the upper limb of The Moon touches the horizon, considering the effect of the atmospheric refraction. As the atmospheric conditions cannot be modeled precisely the times reported here should be considered correct with an approximation of few minutes.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Jan 22 | 17h 47m 03s | -22° 23’ 29” | -7.16 | 1,858.3” | Sagittarius |
| 2020 Jan 23 | 18h 43m 26s | -23° 13’ 57” | -6.16 | 1,842.4” | Sagittarius |
| 2020 Jan 24 | 19h 39m 05s | -22° 49’ 42” | -5.01 | 1,826.7” | Sagittarius |
| 2020 Jan 25 | 20h 33m 02s | -21° 16’ 02” | -4.13 | 1,811.5” | Capricornus |
| 2020 Jan 26 | 21h 24m 42s | -18° 42’ 36” | -5.22 | 1,797.5” | Capricornus |
| 2020 Jan 27 | 22h 13m 49s | -15° 21’ 24” | -6.24 | 1,785.2” | Aquarius |
| 2020 Jan 28 | 23h 00m 34s | -11° 24’ 47” | -7.12 | 1,775.6” | Aquarius |
| 2020 Jan 29 | 23h 45m 29s | -07° 04’ 09” | -7.87 | 1,769.4” | Aquarius |
| 2020 Jan 30 | 00h 29m 17s | -02° 29’ 33” | -8.51 | 1,767.6” | Cetus |
| 2020 Jan 31 | 01h 12m 41s | +02° 10’ 06” | -9.08 | 1,770.6” | Cetus |
| 2020 Feb 01 | 01h 56m 32s | +06° 46’ 30” | -9.58 | 1,779.1” | Pisces |
| 2020 Feb 02 | 02h 41m 48s | +11° 10’ 54” | -10.04 | 1,793.2” | Aries |
| 2020 Feb 03 | 03h 29m 14s | +15° 13’ 19” | -10.47 | 1,812.8” | Taurus |
| 2020 Feb 04 | 04h 19m 40s | +18° 41’ 43” | -10.87 | 1,837.2” | Taurus |