What moon were you born under?
The real Moon on the night you were born: its phase, how much of it was lit, the sign it was in, and what that phase is said to mean. Drawn as it looked from your birthplace, so the Southern Hemisphere finally gets it the right way up.
Enter the night
Nothing is stored. The Moon is worked out right here in your browser from the Sun and Moon's positions on that night.
The Moon's surface is drawn from NASA's maps of the real Moon (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), lit for your phase.
The Moon Phase Print draws this exact Moon as it looked from that place, with the phase, the sign and this line, in three colours. Digital from $15, or printed and framed.
Email me my moon
One email with your moon and what it is said to mean. Nothing else unless you tick the box.
What each birth moon is said to mean
Astrologers have long read the phase you are born under as a clue to your nature. These eight types follow the lunar phase types described by the astrologer Dane Rudhyar in The Lunation Cycle, with a little moon folklore. They describe tendencies, not rules.
Questions
Do I need my birth time?
No. The date and place are enough for the phase, because the Moon moves only about 12 degrees a day. A time makes the percentage exact and confirms the Moon's sign, which changes about every two and a half days. Without a time, the sign is only shown when it stayed the same all day.
Why does my Moon look different from other moon calculators?
Most show the Moon as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. From Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America it looks upside down, so a waxing Moon is lit on the left. This calculator uses your birthplace to show the view you would actually have had.
How accurate is it?
The Sun and Moon positions are calculated with standard astronomical formulas (after Jean Meeus) to within a fraction of a degree, far finer than any birth time. The time zone is estimated from the place, which can shift a phase by an hour or so near a boundary, which is why a borderline result says "about".
Can I use it for the night we met?
Yes. Choose "The night we met" and enter that date and place. You get the phase and a line about your love for that phase, and the print can carry both your names with "The moon on the night we met" at the top.
Is this astrology or astronomy?
Both. The phase, the percentage lit and the Moon's sign are astronomy. What the phase is said to mean is astrology, and it describes tendencies rather than predicting anything.