Current moon phase emoji
Find the emoji that matches tonight’s moon. The phase is worked out in your browser from the lunar cycle, and every phase emoji is here to copy.
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Tonight’s moon emoji
Working out tonight’s phase… This needs JavaScript; the full list of phases is below.
Tonight:
Calculated in your browser for from the mean lunar cycle. Around the quarter boundaries it can differ by up to a day from ephemeris-based almanacs.
The phase above is calculated on your device from the mean length of the lunar cycle (29.530588853 days) counted from a reference new moon on 6 January 2000, the standard approach in astronomy handbooks. It is accurate to within about a day, which is enough to pick the right emoji; almanacs that use full ephemeris data may name the next or previous phase for a few hours around each boundary.
Because the calculation runs in the browser, nothing is sent to a server and the page works offline once loaded. Copy the emoji with the button, or take it from the phase table below.
The eight phases and their emoji
| Emoji | Phase | Roughly when | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🌑 | New Moon | Day 0 | Dark; Moon between Earth and Sun |
| 🌒 | Waxing Crescent | Days 1–6 | Thin sliver lit on the right |
| 🌓 | First Quarter | Day 7 | Right half lit |
| 🌔 | Waxing Gibbous | Days 8–13 | Most of the disc lit, growing |
| 🌕 | Full Moon | Day 15 | Whole disc lit |
| 🌖 | Waning Gibbous | Days 16–21 | Most of the disc lit, shrinking |
| 🌗 | Last Quarter | Day 22 | Left half lit |
| 🌘 | Waning Crescent | Days 23–28 | Thin sliver lit on the left |
Day numbers count from the new moon and are approximate. The emoji follow the Northern Hemisphere view; from the Southern Hemisphere the lit side is mirrored, so a waxing crescent in the sky looks like 🌘. For the crescent symbol 🌙 and the moon faces, and what each one means in messages, see the moon emoji guide.
Questions about moon phase emoji
Which moon emoji is today?
Use the calculator at the top of this page; it shows tonight’s phase and the matching emoji, with a copy button.
How accurate is this?
Within about a day. It uses the average lunar cycle rather than a full ephemeris, so it can differ from an almanac for a few hours either side of a quarter boundary. For observing or astrophotography, use an ephemeris-based source.
Why does my moon look different from the emoji?
Orientation depends on where you are. The artwork shows the Northern Hemisphere view; in the Southern Hemisphere the lit side appears on the opposite edge, and near the equator the crescent can look like a bowl.
