Moon phase in Izmir — tonight and this month
The moon over Izmir is a waning crescent tonight, 2% lit and 28.3 days into its cycle. It rises at 04:23 and sets at 19:32, local time. The next full moon is Friday 28 August and the next new moon Wednesday 12 August. Scrub the strip below to any night this month and the disc is drawn as it will actually look.
Waning crescent
3% lit · 28.0 days old
- Moonrise
- 04:23
- Moonset
- 19:32
- Above the horizon
- 15.5 h
- Distance
- 363,854 km
- New moon Wed 12 Aug, 20:36
- First quarter Thu 20 Aug, 05:46
- Full moon Fri 28 Aug, 07:18
- Last quarter Fri 4 Sept, 10:51
Built · rise and set for Izmir · an ordinary distance
The next seven nights in Izmir
| Date | Moonrise | Moonset | Lit | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 11 Aug | 04:23 | 19:32 | 3% | Waning crescent |
| Wed 12 Aug | 05:41 | 20:07 | 0% | New moon |
| Thu 13 Aug | 06:57 | 20:36 | 1% | Waxing crescent |
| Fri 14 Aug | 08:09 | 21:02 | 4% | Waxing crescent |
| Sat 15 Aug | 09:18 | 21:26 | 9% | Waxing crescent |
| Sun 16 Aug | 10:24 | 21:50 | 16% | Waxing crescent |
| Mon 17 Aug | 11:29 | 22:16 | 24% | Waxing crescent |
Why the shape changes the way it does
Half the moon is lit at all times. What changes is how much of the lit half faces us, and that is a matter of the angle between the sun, the earth and the moon rather than of anything moving in front of it. The earth's shadow is involved exactly twice a year at most, and then it is called an eclipse.
The line between light and dark is therefore the edge of a circle seen at an angle — an ellipse, which flattens to a straight line at half moon and bulges one way or the other on either side of it. That is why the disc above is drawn from the real illuminated fraction: 2% tonight in Izmir. A crescent four days old and one six days old are visibly different shapes, and picking from a set of eight icons throws that away.
The rise times drift for the same reason the phase changes: the moon travels about 13° eastwards along the sky each day, so the earth has to turn roughly 50 minutes further to bring it back up. Over a month that adds up to a full day, which is why the moon is a morning object for a fortnight and an evening one for the other fortnight — and why the times in the table above walk steadily later.
Distance matters too, though less than the headlines suggest. The orbit is an ellipse, so the moon is between about 356,500 and 406,700 km away. Tonight it is 364,343 km from the centre of the earth. A full moon near the near end of that range is the one the press calls a supermoon: genuinely about 14% wider than one at the far end, and unmistakable only if you happen to have the two side by side, which you never do.
Everything on this page is computed from the astronomical series rather than looked up in a table, which is why it can answer for any night you scrub to rather than only for the current month.
How to use this
- The strip is a month of nights. Tap any one and the disc, the times and the illumination follow it.
- All times are local to Izmir, including the phase instants — a full moon can fall on a different date depending on where you are.
- A dash in the table means there is genuinely no moonrise or moonset on that date, which happens about once a month.
Worth knowing: Rise and set times are for a flat horizon at sea level and are good to about a minute. A hill on the eastern skyline will hide the moon for longer than that.
FAQ
What is the moon phase tonight in Izmir?
Waning crescent, 2% illuminated, 28.3 days after the last new moon. The panel above draws the real terminator for the date rather than picking one of eight icons, so a four-day crescent and a six-day crescent look different, because they are.
When is the next full moon in Izmir?
Friday 28 August at 07:18 local time. A full moon is an instant, not a night — the moon is exactly opposite the sun at that moment — so it looks full for the evening either side of it as well.
What time does the moon rise in Izmir?
04:23 today, and about 50 minutes later each following day. The week's times are in the table above.
Why does the moon sometimes not rise on a given day?
Because a lunar day is about 24 hours 50 minutes, not 24. Moonrise drifts later and later until it falls past midnight, and that calendar date has no moonrise in it at all. The same happens to moonset a fortnight later. It is not an error in the table.