Best nights for stargazing: plan around the new moon

Why new moon nights are darkest

At new moon the Moon sits in nearly the same direction as the Sun, so it rises and sets with the Sun and is absent all night. A full moon does the opposite: it rises around sunset, sets around sunrise and lights the sky all night.

In the few days around new moon, the thin crescent is faint and only visible briefly after sunset or before sunrise, so it barely affects the middle of the night.

Using moonrise and moonset

The Moon rises on average about 50 minutes later each day. Around first quarter it rises around midday and sets around midnight, so the hours after midnight are dark. Around last quarter it rises around midnight and sets around midday, so the evening is dark.

That means even away from new moon you can find moon-free hours after moonset or before moonrise. Rise and set times depend on your location, so check them for where you are.

Planning a stargazing night

The Moon is one factor; weather and light pollution matter too.

• Find the next new moon and treat the few nights around it as candidates.
• Check moonrise and moonset on those nights and pick the moon-free hours.
• Check the cloud forecast; clouds matter more than the Moon.
• Get away from city lights and give your eyes 20–30 minutes to adapt to the dark.
• For meteor showers, years when the peak falls near new moon are especially good.

How Lunadot does it

Lunadot shows the next new moon with its date and D-day and can remind you the evening before. If you allow it, it takes an approximate location once to calculate moonrise and moonset, stored only on your device. Everything is computed on the phone, so it works at dark sites with no signal.