What we do
Most moon and sky information online gives a single time for the whole world, or for one country. We calculate everything for the place you choose: tonight's moon phase and how it looks from your city, moonrise and moonset with their direction, sunrise, sunset and when it gets dark, full moons, and solar and lunar eclipses with the local time of every stage. You can pick any of about 46,000 towns and cities, or let the page use your device's time zone or location.
A number on its own is only half an answer, so every tool comes with a plain-language explanation of what it shows and why: why the moon rises later each day, why a blood moon is red, why your city may wait decades for a total solar eclipse.
How our content is made
- Calculated, not copied. The positions of the sun and moon come from an open-source astronomy library, worked out for the exact coordinates of each place. We don't copy dates or times from other sites.
- Checked against official data. We compare our results with NASA's eclipse catalogs and the U.S. Naval Observatory's tables. The comparisons are published on our Methodology and Accuracy page.
- Sourced. Facts that don't come from our own calculations are linked to official or primary sources, numbered at the end of each page and collected on the Sources page. We open and read every source before citing it.
- Kept current. "Today" pages update themselves, and pages about a particular year move on to the next one each autumn.
Science and tradition
Most of the site is astronomy. Where the moon matters to a tradition, such as the Hindu tithi, Purnima and Amavasya or the Islamic Hijri calendar and new crescent, we give the astronomical facts and leave the rules of the tradition to its own authorities: your panchang, temple, mosque or moon sighting committee. We don't publish horoscopes.
Who we are
Lunatlas is written and built by Zübeyt Akbal (about the author). We are not affiliated with any company, government body or space agency; NASA and the U.S. Naval Observatory are sources of information for us, nothing more.
Pages may show advertising to cover the cost of running the site. Advertising has no influence on the content: no date, time or explanation is written to suit an advertiser.
Get in touch
If you spot a mistake or have a suggestion, please contact us. We take corrections seriously and fix every confirmed error.
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