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Live lunar conditions

Is tonight a Moon night?

A workable Moon night. The best window is 19:00–05:00; cloud cover is likely to be the limiting factor.

London· United KingdomDefault locationMonday, 26 October 2026 · 07:27 · London

Tonight's verdict

A workable Moon night

Weather-adjusted
57/100
Viewing score 57 out of 100, weather-adjusted, Night viewing.

Fair

Best window 19:00–05:00 · 10 hrs · Fair (57/100)

Look E · 46° above the horizon · 10 hrs

Phase

Full Moon

Illumination

100%

Next moonrise

Today 16:20

Next moonset

Tomorrow 08:46

View tonight's outlookHow the score works

Open-Meteo hourly forecast for 07:00 local · cached up to 20 min

Current moon
Phase-correct

Full Moon · 100% lit

Altitude -2° · Azimuth 301° · 368,406 km

Northern-hemisphere orientation · surface detail schematic

Tonight's outlook

The next 24 hours, without the guesswork

A deterministic viewing score, a recommended window, and the weather that could change the plan. All times are local to London.

Read the scoring method

Best viewing window

19:00–05:00

10 hrs · look E · 46° altitude · 86% mean cloud

Mon 26 Oct · local time in London

NightSee it on the timeline

Viewing score

Cloud-weighted, per hour

Weather
57/100
Viewing score 57 out of 100, weather-adjusted, Night viewing.

Fair

Cloud likely to interfere

Not a scientific measurement. The index favours a Moon that is easy to see, not necessarily the sharpest surface detail.

Best time to look

Best contiguous window in the next 24 hours

Night

19:00–05:00

10 hrs · look E · 46° altitude

Starts Mon 26 Oct local time. The window is the longest qualifying run at or above 50/100, selected by mean score.

Weather snapshot

Hourly forecast for the selected location

Open-Meteo

Overcast

100%

Cloud cover · 19% chance of precipitation

10°C nowValid 07:00 local

Moon altitude & cloud cover

Next 24 hours · local time · cloud bars rise from the horizon

Hover or focus an hour for details

Moon altitude Cloud cover Daylight / twilight Now

Weather: Open-Meteo

Mon 26 Oct · 19:00Moon 22°Cloud 45%Score 61 (Fair)Night
0°30°60°90°BEST WINDOWNOW · 07:2708:0011:0014:0017:0020:0023:0002:0005:0008:0008:00 · Moon -6° · Cloud 100% · Score 009:00 · Moon -12° · Cloud 100% · Score 010:00 · Moon -17° · Cloud 100% · Score 011:00 · Moon -20° · Cloud 100% · Score 012:00 · Moon -20° · Cloud 100% · Score 013:00 · Moon -19° · Cloud 100% · Score 014:00 · Moon -15° · Cloud 100% · Score 015:00 · Moon -10° · Cloud 98% · Score 016:00 · Moon -3° · Cloud 90% · Score 017:00 · Moon 5° · Cloud 90% · Score 318:00 · Moon 13° · Cloud 46% · Score 4219:00 · Moon 22° · Cloud 45% · Score 6120:00 · Moon 31° · Cloud 81% · Score 5221:00 · Moon 40° · Cloud 92% · Score 5522:00 · Moon 48° · Cloud 98% · Score 5623:00 · Moon 55° · Cloud 99% · Score 5500:00 · Moon 59° · Cloud 98% · Score 5601:00 · Moon 58° · Cloud 89% · Score 6002:00 · Moon 54° · Cloud 76% · Score 6603:00 · Moon 47° · Cloud 96% · Score 5604:00 · Moon 39° · Cloud 86% · Score 5405:00 · Moon 31° · Cloud 100% · Score 4006:00 · Moon 22° · Cloud 100% · Score 1707:00 · Moon 13° · Cloud 100% · Score 808:00 · Moon 5° · Cloud 100% · Score 2
Moon altitude is in degrees above the horizon. Cloud-cover bars run from the bottom of the chart. The highlighted band is the recommended contiguous viewing window; the gold line marks the current local time. Times are local to the selected location.
Hourly Moon viewing forecast
Local timeMoon altitudeCloud coverPrecipitation chanceScoreLight
Mon 26 Oct 08:00-6 degrees100%45%0 out of 100Daylight
Mon 26 Oct 09:00-12 degrees100%67%0 out of 100Daylight
Mon 26 Oct 10:00-17 degrees100%83%0 out of 100Daylight
Mon 26 Oct 11:00-20 degrees100%96%0 out of 100Daylight
Mon 26 Oct 12:00-20 degrees100%100%0 out of 100Daylight
Mon 26 Oct 13:00-19 degrees100%92%0 out of 100Daylight
Mon 26 Oct 14:00-15 degrees100%77%0 out of 100Daylight
Mon 26 Oct 15:00-10 degrees98%59%0 out of 100Daylight
Mon 26 Oct 16:00-3 degrees90%38%0 out of 100Daylight
Mon 26 Oct 17:005 degrees90%16%3 out of 100Twilight
Mon 26 Oct 18:0013 degrees46%0%42 out of 100Night
Mon 26 Oct 19:0022 degrees45%0%61 out of 100Night
Mon 26 Oct 20:0031 degrees81%0%52 out of 100Night
Mon 26 Oct 21:0040 degrees92%0%55 out of 100Night
Mon 26 Oct 22:0048 degrees98%0%56 out of 100Night
Mon 26 Oct 23:0055 degrees99%0%55 out of 100Night
Tue 27 Oct 00:0059 degrees98%0%56 out of 100Night
Tue 27 Oct 01:0058 degrees89%0%60 out of 100Night
Tue 27 Oct 02:0054 degrees76%0%66 out of 100Night
Tue 27 Oct 03:0047 degrees96%2%56 out of 100Night
Tue 27 Oct 04:0039 degrees86%16%54 out of 100Night
Tue 27 Oct 05:0031 degrees100%36%40 out of 100Night
Tue 27 Oct 06:0022 degrees100%55%17 out of 100Night
Tue 27 Oct 07:0013 degrees100%73%8 out of 100Daylight
Tue 27 Oct 08:005 degrees100%89%2 out of 100Daylight

Why this recommendation

  • Full Moon at 100% illumination. A bright Moon is easy to find, but head-on sunlight reduces surface contrast.
  • The Moon climbs to about 59° around 00:00.
  • Next moonrise: Mon 26 Oct at 16:20.
  • Forecast cloud cover averages 86% during the best window, with a 2% chance of precipitation.
Limitations & methodShow
  • The viewing score is a convenience index, not a scientific measurement of sky quality.
  • The Moon disc on this page is phase-correct but its orientation and surface detail are schematic; libration and parallactic angle are not modelled.
Full methodology →

Look ahead & look closer

The next event. The next detail.

Phase events are calculated from the same ephemeris as the live view. Lunar features are a curated, phase-independent map — never presented as tonight's Moon.

Two ways to go deeper

Next lunar event

Calculated phase · local to London

All events

Sun

1

Nov

Last Quarter Moon

20:28 local · Sun 1 Nov

Below horizonMoon at -13° altitude

Last Quarter Moon occurs at 20:28 local time in London on 1 November. Half of the visible disc is lit on the opposite side from first quarter. Morning observers get the best view of the terminator.

Event details Below the horizon at the exact moment — look near moonrise or moonset

Discover the Moon

Daily featured lunar feature

Map detail
ClaviusCRATER · SCHEMATIC MAP DETAIL

Clavius

Crater

58.4°S · 14.4°W · 231 km

A vast ancient crater in the southern highlands, crowded with smaller craters across its floor. Its long, low walls are best seen when the terminator is nearby.

Best phase

Waxing crescent to first quarter

Explore the Moon IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature

Near-Earth neighbour

Earth has a tiny quasi-moon: 2025 PN7

Verified object
SUN2025 PN7EARTHMoonIllustrative orbit · not to scale · not a live position

2025 PN7 is a small near-Earth asteroid in a 1:1 resonance with Earth. It orbits the Sun on roughly the same schedule as our planet, so from Earth it appears to loop nearby. It is not a comet, not a meteor, and not a moon of the Moon.

  • Discovered by Pan-STARRS 1 and announced by the Minor Planet Center on 29 August 2025.
  • Estimated size is roughly 14–30 metres across; it is far too faint for the unaided eye.
  • Dynamical models classify it as a quasi-satellite. It will shift into a horseshoe orbit in about 120 years.
  • Its spectrum is consistent with a primitive B-type asteroid, not lunar ejecta.
Track its current orbit Source: ESA NEO Coordination Centre and Minor Planet Center

Sources & further reading

Images, references and discovery

Official archives for lunar imagery, surface data and current small-body orbits.

External links open the source directly. MoonScan's own lunar map and feature art are generated schematics, not photographs.

The Moon, by the numbers

Six facts worth keeping

Figure sources: NASA and ESA

384,400 km

Mean distance

Light takes about 1.3 seconds to cross the gap between Earth and the Moon.

3,474.8 km

Diameter

Roughly one quarter of Earth's diameter — the Moon is a small world, not a tiny dot.

1.62 m/s²

Surface gravity

About one sixth of Earth's gravity, which is why Apollo astronauts could bound across the surface.

29.5 days

Phase cycle

The time from one new Moon to the next. The Moon's actual orbit around Earth takes 27.3 days.

3.8 cm/year

Drifting away

Lunar laser ranging shows the Moon receding from Earth by roughly the width of two fingers per year.

12

Moonwalkers

Apollo 11 through Apollo 17 put twelve people on the surface between 1969 and 1972.

Elsewhere on Earth

See the same night from another city.

Lunar calendar →
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