The Moon
What Phase is the Moon in?
Today the Moon is Last Quarter and its age is 22.50 days.
Current Moon Sky Map
The Moon Position
The Moon is currently in the constellation of Aries. The current Right Ascension is 04h 12m 50s and the Declination is +17° 38’ 41”.
Simplified sky chart showing where The Moon is right now in the sky with respect to the brightest stars and constellations (see fuillscreen 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 387,102 kilometers, equivalent to 0.002588 Astronomical Units. Light takes 1.2912 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 -9.92.
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, consideting the effect of the atmospheric refraction. As the atmoshpere 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 Aug 16 | 22h 04m 53s | -15° 24’ 20” | -12.41 | 1,767.2” | Aquarius |
| 2019 Aug 17 | 22h 51m 20s | -11° 44’ 52” | -12.14 | 1,764.3” | Aquarius |
| 2019 Aug 18 | 23h 36m 20s | -07° 38’ 39” | -11.86 | 1,764.6” | Aquarius |
| 2019 Aug 19 | 00h 20m 30s | -03° 15’ 06” | -11.58 | 1,768.3” | Pisces |
| 2019 Aug 20 | 01h 04m 29s | +01° 16’ 54” | -11.29 | 1,776.0” | Cetus |
| 2019 Aug 21 | 01h 49m 00s | +05° 48’ 38” | -10.99 | 1,788.0” | Pisces |
| 2019 Aug 22 | 02h 34m 54s | +10° 10’ 45” | -10.67 | 1,804.7” | Cetus |
| 2019 Aug 23 | 03h 22m 56s | +14° 12’ 51” | -10.32 | 1,826.1” | Aries |
| 2019 Aug 24 | 04h 13m 54s | +17° 42’ 34” | -9.91 | 1,851.8” | Taurus |
| 2019 Aug 25 | 05h 08m 13s | +20° 25’ 22” | -9.44 | 1,880.9” | Taurus |
| 2019 Aug 26 | 06h 06m 01s | +22° 05’ 17” | -8.86 | 1,911.9” | Gemini |
| 2019 Aug 27 | 07h 06m 39s | +22° 27’ 16” | -8.14 | 1,942.6” | Gemini |
| 2019 Aug 28 | 08h 08m 57s | +21° 21’ 15” | -7.24 | 1,970.2” | Cancer |
| 2019 Aug 29 | 09h 11m 22s | +18° 45’ 59” | -6.13 | 1,991.5” | Cancer |