Moon Chart This Week

Planning a week of Moon watching, photography or dark-sky stargazing? This chart shows the Moon for each of the next seven nights — its shape, how much is lit, when it rises and sets where you are — and suggests which features to look for through binoculars or a small telescope.

Reading the weekly Moon chart

Each card shows one evening. The drawing shows the Moon’s lit shape as seen from your hemisphere, the percentage tells you how much of the disc is lit, and the age counts days since the last new Moon. Moonrise and moonset tell you when the Moon is above the horizon: a waxing Moon is up in the evening, a waning Moon rises late and lights the early morning sky.

The Moon’s cycle in a week

In one week the Moon moves through roughly a quarter of its 29.5-day cycle, so a week that starts at new Moon ends near first quarter.

What to look for along the terminator

The terminator — the line between lunar day and night — is where shadows are longest and craters and mountains stand out in sharp relief. After full Moon the same features appear again, this time at sunset, about 14.8 days later: Mare Crisium around day 18, Copernicus around day 24. The full Moon itself is flat-looking but shows bright ray systems around Tycho and Copernicus.

Worked example

Someone in Chicago plans a week of observing with a small telescope. The chart shows a waxing crescent on Monday at 19% lit, setting before midnight — good for the craters near the terminator such as Theophilus. By Thursday the Moon is at first quarter, high in the south at dusk, with the Apennine mountains and the Straight Wall on the terminator. Anyone hoping to photograph faint galaxies that week would choose Monday after moonset, before the brighter Moon dominates the evening sky.

Moonrise, moonset and the ecliptic

On average the Moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, but the gap varies from under 30 minutes to more than an hour depending on the season and your latitude. Around the September equinox in the northern hemisphere, the full Moon’s path makes a shallow angle with the evening horizon, so it rises only a little later on successive nights — the effect behind the “Harvest Moon” name. Near the spring equinox the opposite happens and moonrise times jump by an hour or more each night.

Planning photography and dark-sky nights

Use the rise and set times on each card to find the dark window between moonset and dawn, or between dusk and moonrise.

Moon watching tips

• Binoculars show the maria, larger craters and earthshine on a young crescent.
• A small telescope at low power shows mountain ranges and crater walls along the terminator.
• A Moon filter or sunglasses-style ND filter makes a bright gibbous Moon comfortable.
• Photograph the Moon at a fast shutter speed — it’s sunlit and much brighter than it seems.
• For dark-sky stargazing, plan around the new Moon.

Why the Moon looks different in the southern hemisphere

Observers south of the equator see the Moon “upside down” compared with the north: a waxing crescent is lit on the left rather than the right. The chart flips the drawings when you enter a southern latitude. Near the equator, the crescent can appear to lie on its back like a bowl.

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