What is the Moon phase today?

Start with the disc on this page. It shows the Moon at the moment named in its caption, which is either midnight UTC on the page's data date or the moment you open it. The words beside the disc give the same answer in plain text, so you can check one against the other.

Use the lit part of the disc as your guide. The sunlit side always faces the Sun, so the shape you see depends on how much of that side is turned toward you. A thin curve means only a sliver of the face is lit. A round disc means nearly all of it is.

Nothing in the explanations is written for one particular night. The dates and tables are computed for the data date named at the top, and the disc updates when you open the page. If you want the exact moment a phase begins, the ephemeris guide explains what the computed table lists.

The table on this page gives one row for each night in the window. Each row carries the date, a short name for the phase and the lit fraction for that night. Every row is taken at one fixed moment of the day, so the rows can be compared directly. Read down the column and the lit share climbs toward a full face or falls back toward a thin edge, one step at a time.

The First quarter of 17 Nov 2026, 11:48 UTC falls in Aquarius. The Full Moon of 26 Oct 2026, 04:12 UTC falls in Taurus. The next-phases table lists these instants and the others in the cycle in time order.

The Moon moves through the same run of eight named phases each time it completes a cycle. The names describe how much of the lit face you can see from Earth and whether that lit share is growing or shrinking. The cycle is continuous. No phase is a stop on the way to another, and each one slides gently into the next.

The cycle begins at the New Moon, when the lit side faces away from us and the disc looks almost dark. A waxing crescent follows, a thin curve of light that widens from one night to the next. About a week after the New Moon comes the First quarter, when half of the face is lit. The table names a quarter for the days around the exact instant, so a quarter row can show more or less than half lit.

The Waxing gibbous phase comes next, a shape larger than half but not yet round. The Full Moon follows, when the whole lit face is turned toward us. It sits roughly opposite the Sun in the sky, which is why it tends to rise as the Sun sets. The opposition guide covers that geometry in more detail.

Then the light starts to thin. The Waning gibbous phase is a round shape that loses a little each night. The Last quarter brings another half, but the lit half sits on the opposite side. The Waning crescent closes the cycle as a thin curve, and the dark returns at the next New Moon.

Eight names cover the whole run, so the words waxing and waning matter as much as the shape. Two halves can look alike, one growing and one shrinking, so the direction is part of the name. Read the name together with the disc before you decide where the Moon stands in its cycle.

One full cycle runs from one New Moon to the next, about four weeks in all, though the gap changes from month to month. The phases do not fall on fixed calendar dates. The lunation guide explains the full cycle, including why its length varies.

The Moon makes no light of its own and shines by reflecting sunlight. What changes from night to night is how much of the lit side faces you.

A lamp and a ball in a dark room make a useful picture. The lamp always lights one half of the ball. Walk slowly around the ball and the lit part you see seems to grow, shrink and shift, though the ball has not changed at all. The Moon does the same thing across the month.

Lit fraction is the share of the visible disc that catches sunlight. It is a plain measure of how much light reaches your eye from the face. It is not the same thing as the phase name, which also tells you whether that share is growing or shrinking. The disc and the words are computed for the same moment, so they agree. The table lists midnight UTC rows for the data date.

To see the shape for yourself, look at the Moon on a clear evening and compare it with the disc. Then look again three or four nights later and notice whether the lit edge is thicker or thinner. The ecliptic guide describes the broad band across the sky along which the Moon moves.