Moon Phases Today: How to Read Tonight’s Phase and What’s Next

Moon Phases Today at a Glance

One full cycle	About 29.5 days, new moon to new moon
The four main phases	New moon (0% lit), first quarter (50%), full moon (100%), last quarter (50%)
The four in between	Waxing crescent, waxing gibbous, waning gibbous, waning crescent
The Moon changes sign	Every two to three days
Next full moon	The Beaver Moon in Gemini, a supermoon, Tuesday, November 24, 2026, 9:53 AM Eastern
Also happening	Mercury retrograde in Scorpio, October 24 to November 13

What Phase Is the Moon in Tonight?

The Moon is always in one of eight phases, and they run in a fixed order: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning crescent. Then the loop starts again. NASA lists the same eight, with “third quarter” as another name for the last quarter.

Waxing means the lit part is growing, which covers the four phases from new moon to full. Waning means it is shrinking, from full moon back to new. So if the next main phase in the table below is the full moon, the Moon is waxing tonight. If the next one is the new moon, it is waning.

Percent lit is the share of the Moon’s face that is in sunlight as seen from Earth, and it comes from a single angle: how far the Moon is from the Sun along the zodiac. The lit fraction is one minus the cosine of that angle, divided by two. Here is the working:

• New moon, 0 degrees apart: (1 minus 1) divided by 2 = 0, so 0% lit.
• First quarter, 90 degrees: (1 minus 0) divided by 2 = 0.5, so 50% lit.
• Full moon, 180 degrees: (1 plus 1) divided by 2 = 1, so 100% lit.
• Last quarter, 270 degrees: (1 minus 0) divided by 2 = 0.5, so 50% lit.

A crescent is anything under 50%. A gibbous Moon is anything over it. And yes, a “half moon” is really a quarter: 90 degrees is a quarter of the way round the 360 degree loop, even though half the face is lit.

You can also read the direction with your eyes. North of the equator, a Moon lit on its right side is waxing and a Moon lit on its left is waning. NASA puts it the same way: the waxing crescent shows a thin curve of light on the right, the waning crescent on the left. South of the equator the picture is flipped, so swap the sides.

What Sign Is the Moon in Today?

The Moon crosses the whole zodiac in about 27.3 days, far faster than the Sun, which takes about a year. That is 360 degrees divided by 27.3, about 13.2 degrees a day. One sign is 30 degrees, so 30 divided by 13.2 comes to about 2.3 days a sign. Call it every two to three days.

That matters because the sign the Moon is passing through sets the emotional weather for everyone at once. It is why some days feel like a group chat and others feel like a closed door. Here is the mood each sign brings when the Moon is in it:

• ♈︎Aries MoonQuick, impatient, ready to start. Tempers are short and so is everyone’s attention span.
• ♉︎Taurus MoonSlow, steady and sensual. Good food, soft fabric, no rushing.
• ♊︎Gemini MoonChatty and curious. Messages fly and plans change twice before lunch.
• ♋︎Cancer MoonTender and a little homesick. Feelings sit close to the surface.
• ♌︎Leo MoonWarm, dramatic and generous. Everyone wants to be seen, so let them.
• ♍︎Virgo MoonPractical and tidy. A good day to fix, sort and finish, and to resist nitpicking.
• ♎︎Libra MoonSocial and diplomatic. Harmony matters, and decisions take a while.
• ♏︎Scorpio MoonIntense and private. Small talk fails, honesty works.
• ♐︎Sagittarius MoonRestless and upbeat. The big picture beats the details.
• ♑︎Capricorn MoonSerious and productive. Feelings go on the schedule, after the work.
• ♒︎Aquarius MoonCool and inventive. Friends, causes and ideas over a cozy night in.
• ♓︎Pisces MoonDreamy and sensitive. Boundaries get soft, intuition gets loud.

These are tendencies, not rules. How strongly you feel a given Moon day depends on your own chart, and especially on your own Moon sign, the one you were born with. Tonight’s Moon is a transit: it passes through every sign once a month. Your natal Moon never moves. Our guide to Moon sign vs Sun sign explains the difference. When the transiting Moon comes back round to your natal Moon sign, roughly once a month, you tend to feel the whole day more than usual.

Which House Is Tonight’s Moon In for You?

This is the part that depends on your own chart, and it takes about a minute. In whole sign houses, your rising sign is your first house, the next sign round the zodiac is your second, and so on through all twelve. Our free birth chart calculator gives you your rising sign.

A worked example. Say you are Leo rising and the Moon is in Taurus tonight. Count from Leo as one: Leo 1, Virgo 2, Libra 3, Scorpio 4, Sagittarius 5, Capricorn 6, Aquarius 7, Pisces 8, Aries 9, Taurus 10. Tonight’s Moon is in your tenth house, so the day’s feelings are about work, ambition and how you are seen. A Scorpio rising doing the same count lands Taurus in the seventh, the house of partners, and feels the same Moon in their relationship instead.

House	What it covers
1	You, your body, your mood
2	Money and what you own
3	Siblings, neighbors, messages
4	Home and family
5	Romance, creativity, fun
6	Daily routines and habits
7	Partners and close one to one bonds
8	Shared money, intimacy, endings
9	Travel, study, beliefs
10	Career and reputation
11	Friends, groups, hopes
12	Rest, solitude, the inner world

The Next Moon Phases

The next four main phases, with the sign the Moon is in at each. Times are Eastern.

Phase	Sign	When
Last Quarter	Leo	Sun, Nov 1, 3:28 PM
New Moon	Scorpio	Mon, Nov 9, 2:02 AM
First Quarter	Aquarius	Tue, Nov 17, 6:48 AM
Full Moon (Beaver)	Gemini	Tue, Nov 24, 9:53 AM

The next full moon is the Beaver Moon on November 24: 9:53 AM Eastern, 8:53 AM Central, 7:53 AM Mountain, 6:53 AM Pacific. It is a supermoon in Gemini. A full moon looks full for about a day on either side. Our Beaver Moon guide has more on it.

In the background, Mercury is retrograde in Scorpio from October 24 to November 13, so the Scorpio new moon on November 9 lands right in the middle of it. Set your intentions, but reread anything you sign. Our Mercury retrograde guide has the dates.

What Each Moon Phase Means

One line each. The longer guide to every phase is in our moon phases spiritual meaning guide.

Phase	Lit	Good for
New moon	0%	Beginning. Set one or two intentions, then rest
Waxing crescent	1 to 49%	Committing. Take the first small step
First quarter	50%	Acting. Push through the first obstacle
Waxing gibbous	51 to 99%	Refining. Adjust what is not working yet
Full moon	100%	Seeing clearly. Celebrate, notice, let go
Waning gibbous	99 to 51%	Sharing. Gratitude, and the talks the full moon opened
Last quarter	50%	Releasing. Clear, cancel, forgive, finish
Waning crescent	49 to 1%	Resting. Do less on purpose

The waning crescent is the last stretch before the dark: the roughly seven days between the last quarter and the new moon, with the thinnest sliver in the final few nights. Astrologers sometimes call it the balsamic moon. It is the most restful phase of the cycle. Sleep, reflect, tidy the loose ends and leave the big launches for next week.

What Is Tonight’s Moon Called?

Tonight’s Moon is called by its phase: a waxing crescent, a first quarter moon, a full moon and so on. The table above tells you which, from whichever main phase comes next. The full moon is the phase that gets a name, and most of the names follow the month it falls in. The Harvest Moon is the exception: it is the full moon closest to the September equinox. Here are the names the Old Farmer’s Almanac uses:

• January: Wolf Moon
• February: Snow Moon
• March: Worm Moon
• April: Pink Moon
• May: Flower Moon
• June: Strawberry Moon
• July: Buck Moon
• August: Sturgeon Moon
• September: Harvest Moon (or Corn Moon)
• October: Hunter’s Moon
• November: Beaver Moon
• December: Cold Moon

The names the Old Farmer’s Almanac uses come from Native American, colonial American and other traditional North American sources. The Hunter’s Moon is the full moon after the Harvest Moon, named for the season of hunting and preparing meat for winter, when a bright Moon after sunset let hunters keep going into the night.

Three more names you will hear:

• Blue Moon. The second full moon in one calendar month. Full moons come every 29.5 days and most months have 30 or 31, so now and then one squeezes in twice. NASA puts that at about every two and a half years. Another meaning is the extra full moon in a season that has four. Nothing about it is blue.
• Supermoon. A full moon close to perigee, the point in its orbit nearest Earth. NASA’s rule of thumb is a full moon within about 90 percent of perigee. At its closest a full moon can look up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the faintest full moon of the year, though the size difference is hard to spot with the naked eye. The Beaver Moon on November 24 is one.
• Blood Moon. The red Moon during a total lunar eclipse. Earth sits between the Sun and the Moon, and air in Earth’s atmosphere scatters out most of the blue light, leaving the Moon red. The last one was March 3, 2026. The next total lunar eclipse is December 31, 2028.

The Best Time to View the Moon

The best time to view the Moon depends on its phase, because each phase keeps its own hours. The examples are for New York, from the US Naval Observatory.

• Full moon: rises around sunset and stays up all night, so the show starts at dusk, facing east. On October 26 the Hunter’s Moon rose over New York at 5:58 PM, two minutes before the 6:00 PM sunset.
• First quarter: rises around midday and sets around the middle of the night, so it is high in the sky at dusk and the easiest Moon to catch after dinner. November 17: moonrise 12:52 PM, moonset 11:56 PM.
• Waxing crescent: low in the west just after sunset, and gone within a few hours.
• Last quarter: rises around the middle of the night and sets around midday, so it is highest at dawn. November 2: the Moon is highest at 6:32 AM, four minutes after sunrise.
• Waning crescent: only before sunrise, low in the east. November 6: moonrise 3:50 AM, sunrise 6:32 AM, 7% lit.
• New moon: rises and sets with the Sun, so there is nothing to see. Look at the stars instead.

Why does the Moon look enormous when it is low? It isn’t. NASA notes that the Moon is the same width near the horizon as when it is high in the sky; the difference is an illusion built by your brain. The color is real, though: a low Moon shines through more air, which is why it turns gold or orange on the way up.

What to Do Under Tonight’s Moon

• New moon: write down one intention. One. Then go to bed early.
• Waxing crescent: take the first small step toward it. Send the email, book the class.
• First quarter: expect friction and push anyway. The resistance means the plan is real.
• Waxing gibbous: adjust. Look at what is working and fix the rest before the peak.
• Full moon: light a candle, say out loud what the light has shown you, and let one thing go. Our full moon rituals guide has five simple ways to do it.
• Waning gibbous: thank someone, in person or in writing.
• Last quarter: cancel, clear, finish. Edit your week down to what deserves to stay.
• Waning crescent: rest without guilt. You are making room.

Whatever tonight’s phase, check the sign too. The Beaver Moon in Gemini on November 24 wants the conversation you have been putting off.

Moon Phases Today FAQ