The phase of the Moon today, and month and year calendars of every phase, with exact times in your time zone, the Moon's zodiac sign, the names of the full moons, and what each phase means.
About the phases of the Moon
The Moon takes about 29.5 days (a synodic month) to go from one new moon to the next. It does not make its own light: we see the half lit by the Sun, and as the Moon circles the Earth we see more or less of that half. At the new moon it sits between the Earth and the Sun and its lit side faces away from us. At the full moon the Earth sits between the two and we see the whole lit face. The quarters are the halfway points, when exactly half of the disk is lit.
The four principal phases are exact moments, and the calendar gives their time. The four in between (crescents and gibbous moons) last about a week each. The Moon waxes (grows) from new to full, and wanes (shrinks) from full to new. From the Northern Hemisphere, the waxing Moon is lit on the right; from the Southern Hemisphere it looks upside down, lit on the left. Use the North / South switch to see it your way.
The Moon in the signs
The Moon moves through the whole zodiac in about 27.3 days, spending two to three days in each sign. Astrologers read its sign as the emotional weather of those days. The calendar shows the sign for each day and the time the Moon moves into the next one (tropical zodiac, as in Western astrology).
Full moon names
Each full moon has a traditional name, from the North American almanac tradition, which drew on Native American, Colonial American and European names for the months. The names are for the Northern Hemisphere seasons.
Blue Moon: the second full moon in a calendar month. Black Moon: the second new moon in a calendar month. Supermoon: a full moon closer than 361,000 km, when the Moon looks biggest and brightest. Micromoon: a full moon farther than 405,000 km.
How it is calculated
Everything is computed in your browser, for any year from 1900 to 2100. The positions of the Sun and the Moon come from the algorithms of Jean Meeus' Astronomical Algorithms, and the exact times of the phases and sign changes are solved from them. They agree with professional ephemerides to about a minute. Times are shown in your device's time zone.