New moon – when is the next new moon?

There is a new moon when the Moon lies almost between Earth and the Sun, so the side facing us is unlit. The new moon is therefore essentially invisible, and the night is at its darkest with no moonlight. Below you can see the upcoming new moons, calculated astronomically.

Why can't you see the new moon?

At new moon the Moon's lit side faces away from Earth, and the Moon also sits close to the Sun in the sky. It is therefore up during the day and sets around sunset. A couple of days after new moon, the thin waxing crescent appears low in the west after sunset.

New moon and stargazing

The nights around new moon are the darkest in the lunar cycle, because there is no moonlight. That makes them ideal for observing stars, meteors and the Milky Way. Between two new moons the Moon passes through full moon and the other moon phases.

See also the moon today with moonrise and moonset for your location, or the whole month in the moon calendar.

From one new moon to the next

On average 29.5 days pass from one new moon to the next. This is called a synodic month, and it is longer than the 27.3 days the Moon takes to complete one orbit of the Earth. The difference is that the Earth has itself moved along its orbit in the meantime, so the Moon has to travel a little further to line up between us and the Sun again.

The interval actually varies by as much as 13 hours from month to month, because the Moon's orbit is an ellipse and its speed is therefore not constant. The dates above are calculated for each individual cycle rather than from a fixed average.

A new moon is also the precondition for a solar eclipse. The Moon's orbit is tilted about 5° relative to the Earth's, so the three bodies rarely line up precisely — which is why there is no solar eclipse every month, but typically two to four a year somewhere on the planet.

Catching the youngest crescent

The new moon itself cannot be seen, but the thin crescent that follows it can — and finding it as early as possible is a small and surprisingly popular pursuit. The crescent is not normally visible until the moon is at least 15 to 20 hours past the exact new moon, and even then only in near-perfect conditions: a clear western horizon, clean dry air, and the timing to catch it in the short window after the sun has set but before the moon follows it down.

What you are looking for is a hairline arc very low in the west, often no more than 1% illuminated. It sets within an hour of the sun. A day later it is unmistakable, and by then you may also see the rest of the disc faintly filled in by earthshine — sunlight reflected off the Earth onto the moon's night side. Leonardo da Vinci worked out the explanation for that particular effect five centuries ago, and it is still sometimes called da Vinci glow.

Why calendars are built on it

The new moon is the anchor point of most lunar calendars, and it is the reason a number of familiar dates move around the civil calendar every year.

• The Islamic calendar is purely lunar, with each month beginning at the first sighting of the new crescent. Twelve lunar months come to about 354 days, eleven short of a solar year, which is why Ramadan moves steadily backwards through the seasons over a 33-year cycle.
• The Chinese calendar is lunisolar: months begin at the new moon, but leap months are inserted to keep the year aligned with the seasons. Chinese New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice, which is why it lands somewhere between late January and late February.
• Easter is set by a related rule running from the other end of the cycle — the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox — which is why it ranges across more than a month.

The reason these systems need correcting at all is the mismatch this page opened with: 29.5 days does not divide neatly into 365.25.

Why the date can differ depending on where you are

A new moon is an instant, not a day. It is the moment the moon and sun share the same celestial longitude, and that moment is the same everywhere on Earth — but the local date attached to it is not. A new moon at 23:40 UTC falls on the 3rd in London and already on the 4th in Tokyo.

The times listed on this page are given in your own local timezone for exactly that reason. If you see a new moon date here that is a day off from another source, this is almost always why. Calendars that depend on physically sighting the crescent rather than calculating the conjunction add a further layer of variation, since visibility depends on where the observer is standing.

The darkest nights of the month

For anyone who looks at the sky, the new moon is the useful part of the cycle. A full moon is bright enough to wash out everything except the brightest stars and planets; around new moon the sky is as dark as your location allows. The workable window runs roughly from three or four days after full moon to three or four days before the next one.

This matters most for meteor showers, whose visible rates can drop by a large fraction under a bright moon, and for the Milky Way, which needs both a moonless sky and the end of astronomical twilight. At northern latitudes those two conditions do not overlap at all in high summer — see when it gets dark for why. To plan around it, check the moon phase calendar and the almanac for your own location.

Frequently asked questions about the new moon

When is the next new moon?

See the upcoming new moons in the list above. The dates are calculated astronomically and updated continuously.

Why can't you see the new moon?

At new moon the Moon's lit side faces away from Earth, and the Moon sits close to the Sun in the sky. It is therefore essentially invisible and is up during the day.