New Moon

When you can see it

You cannot see it. The new moon rises around sunrise and sets around sunset, crossing the daytime sky within a few degrees of the sun, which drowns it out completely. The first sliver becomes visible a day or so later, low in the west after sunset.

What is happening up there

The moon and the sun share the same ecliptic longitude, an alignment astronomers call conjunction. The sunlit half of the moon faces away from us. When that alignment is also close enough in latitude, the moon's shadow reaches Earth and the new moon becomes a solar eclipse, which is why every solar eclipse falls on a new moon.

What a new moon is said to mean

The new moon is traditionally read as the start of something: the point in the cycle for setting an intention rather than finishing anything. Gardeners in the moon-planting tradition treat the days after it as a sowing window for leafy crops, and it opens the two darkest weeks for anyone chasing faint stars.

Worth saying plainly: these readings are tradition, not fact. The astronomy on this page is computed and checkable; the meanings are a cultural inheritance, offered because people find them enjoyable.

What to do under it

This is the best stargazing window of the month. With no moon in the sky, the Milky Way, faint galaxies, and meteor showers all show at their best, and the darkness holds for several nights either side.

Stargazing by the moon