The 8 phases of the Moon, in order
Four phases are moments and four are stretches of time. New moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter each happen at one exact minute. Between them come the crescents and the gibbous phases, each lasting about a week. In our count from 1930 to 2025 the gap between two main phases ran from 6.6 to 8.2 days. The Moon's orbit is an ellipse, and the Moon moves faster near Earth.
New Moon 0% lit
The Moon sits between Earth and the Sun, so its lit side faces away from us. It rises and sets with the Sun and is lost in the glare. You see it only during a solar eclipse, which can happen only at a new moon.
Waxing Crescent 1% to 49% lit
A thin curve low in the west after sunset, growing each evening. In the Northern Hemisphere the lit edge is on the right. The dark part often glows faintly. That is earthshine, sunlight bounced off Earth.
First Quarter 50% lit
The right half is lit. The name means the Moon has gone a quarter of the way around its orbit, and half of its face shows. It rises around noon, is highest near sunset and sets around midnight.
Waxing Gibbous 51% to 99% lit
More than half lit and still growing. It rises in the afternoon and is up for most of the night. Gibbous comes from the Latin for humpbacked, after the bulging shape.
Full Moon 100% lit
Earth sits between the Sun and the Moon, so the whole face is lit. It rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. A lunar eclipse can happen only at a full moon. To the eye it looks full for a night on either side.
Waning Gibbous 99% to 51% lit
The light now shrinks from the right side. It rises in the evening after dark. It is still up in the morning after sunrise, which is why people spot it in a blue daytime sky.
Last Quarter 50% lit
The left half is lit, also called the third quarter. It rises around midnight, is highest around sunrise and sets around noon.
Waning Crescent 49% to 1% lit
A thin curve in the east before dawn, lit on the left. It rises after midnight and shrinks each morning. Then it disappears into the next new moon.
Percentages are the share of the disc that is lit. Exactly 50% falls within minutes of the quarter, and 0% and 100% at new and full moon. Between those moments the number moves by up to about 12 points a day.
What sign is the Moon in today?
The Moon is in Aries at 26°38′ and moves into Taurus on Sunday, October 25 at 7:35 p.m. EDT. The Moon passes through all 12 signs in about 27 days and spends 2.3 days in each one on average. That makes its sign the part of the sky astrologers check daily. Each sign has its own page on what the Moon means there, in a birth chart and as a daily mood.
- ♈︎ Moon in Aries
- ♉︎ Moon in Taurus
- ♊︎ Moon in Gemini
- ♋︎ Moon in Cancer
- ♌︎ Moon in Leo
- ♍︎ Moon in Virgo
- ♎︎ Moon in Libra
- ♏︎ Moon in Scorpio
- ♐︎ Moon in Sagittarius
- ♑︎ Moon in Capricorn
- ♒︎ Moon in Aquarius
- ♓︎ Moon in Pisces
For the Moon on the day you were born, with its exact degree and house, use the Moon sign calculator. All 12 placements are on the Moon signs page.
Moon phases in astrology
Astrology reads the phases as a tradition. The new moon is treated as a start, a time to set an intention. The full moon is a peak: things come to light, finish or tip over. The waning half is for clearing out and letting go. No instrument can show any of this. It is symbolism that astrologers have built around the cycle.
Some astrologers also read the phase you were born under. Dane Rudhyar set this out in The Lunation Cycle (1967). He split the month into eight 45° slices by the angle between the Moon and the Sun and gave each a temperament: New Moon types start things on instinct, Full Moon types see both sides, Balsamic types close a chapter. His slices start at the main phases, so his "first quarter" covers the days after the quarter, not the days before it. Our Moon sign calculator gives your birth phase by his method, with the sign and house of your Moon.
The phase also matters for the Moon's sign. A full moon always falls in the sign opposite the Sun, and a new moon in the Sun's own sign. That is why the October full moon is in Aries or Taurus and the October new moon is in Libra or Scorpio.
Questions about the Moon phase
Is tonight a full moon?
Almost. The Moon is 100% lit and the exact full moon is Monday, October 26 at 12:12 a.m. EDT, so tonight it already looks full.
How can you tell if the Moon is waxing or waning?
Look at which side is lit. In the Northern Hemisphere a Moon lit on the right is waxing, growing toward full, and one lit on the left is waning. South of the equator it is the other way around. You can also go by the clock. A Moon in the evening sky is waxing, and one still up in the morning is waning.
Is the Moon phase the same everywhere?
Yes. At any given moment the same share of the Moon is lit for everyone on Earth, because the phase depends only on where the Moon, Earth and Sun are. The clock is what changes. A full moon at 12:12 a.m. Eastern is 9:12 p.m. the evening before on the West Coast, so the date can differ by time zone. People in the Southern Hemisphere see the same phase upside down.
What are the odds of a full moon on your birthday?
About 1 year in 30. In our count from 1930 to 2025 in Eastern time, a calendar date had a full moon in 3.3 of 96 years on average, between 1 and 5 depending on the date. The full moon tends to come back to the same date after 19 years (the Metonic cycle), so the years on a list often sit 19 apart. Enter your birthday in the date tool above to see yours.
What is the rarest phase of the Moon?
No phase is rare. All eight come around every month. The calendar is what makes some months unusual. Two full moons in one calendar month, a monthly Blue Moon, happened 40 times from 1930 to 2025, and February went without any full moon in 5 of those years.
Does the full moon affect sleep?
There is some evidence it might. In a 2013 study in Current Biology, 33 volunteers sleeping in a lab with no view of the sky took about 5 minutes longer to fall asleep around the full moon, slept about 20 minutes less and showed 30% less deep-sleep brain activity. It was one small study that looked back at older data. Treat it as a lead, not a settled fact.
Sources
- Astronomy Engine: the open-source ephemeris library behind our planet positions, dates and statistics
- GeoNames: city coordinates for the calculator (CC BY 4.0)
- How we create our readings: our own calculation of sign dates, positions and the 1930 to 2025 statistics
How we calculate the Moon
Every number on this page comes from the Astronomy Engine ephemeris, computed in your browser for the current minute. The phase name, the share lit and the Moon's age come from the angle between the Moon and the Sun. Main phases are given to the minute, with seconds dropped, the way the US Naval Observatory and the Old Farmer's Almanac print them. We checked 76 phase and rise times from September 1969 and 2026 to 2027 against the Naval Observatory and timeanddate.com. None was off by more than a minute. The sign is the tropical zodiac used in Western astrology.
Astrology is a symbolic tradition, not a science, and nothing on this page predicts events. More in How we work.
Related pages
Full moon calendar 2026–2027 · Moon sign calculator · Moon sign meanings · Where every planet is today · Horoscopes 2027.