The moon reached the farthest point of its orbit this morning, and for the rest of the month it only gets closer. Apogee fell at 08:20 UTC on August 22, at a distance of 404,644 km. That is as far away as the moon gets in this lunation, and it is the reason the full moon arriving next week will be one of the smaller ones of 2026. The moon phase today, August 22, 2026, is a Waxing Gibbous, around 72 percent illuminated and roughly ten days into the cycle that opened with the total solar eclipse of August 12.
Nothing about that distance is visible to the eye. The disc spans a little under 30 arcminutes tonight against a perigee moon’s 33, and a few percent of angular width sits well below what human vision resolves without something to compare it against. It is measurable rather than noticeable, and it matters mainly for what it sets up on the 28th. Distance is the part of the moon phase today that almost nobody checks and the part that shapes next week.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, August 22, 2026 |
| Moon phase | Waxing Gibbous |
| Illumination | About 72 percent (68 to 75 percent by location) |
| Moon age | About 10 days (9.3 days at 00:00 UTC, 10.2 by midnight) |
| Distance from Earth | 404,644 km at apogee, 08:20 UTC |
| Zodiac sign | Sagittarius, entering Capricorn at 21:05 UTC |
| Best viewing | South and southwest, from late afternoon until after midnight |
| Last phase | First Quarter, August 20 at 02:47 UTC |
| Next phase | Full Moon, August 28 at 04:20 UTC |
| Illumination is continuous and changes through the day; the range spans the full 24 hours across time zones. | |
The illumination figure climbs the whole way through the day, from about 68 percent at midnight UTC to nearly 76 percent by the end of it. Anything between 68 and 75 percent is a defensible answer for August 22 depending on your longitude and the moment the calculation was run.
What the moon phase today means: the gibbous mid-phase
Two days past first quarter, which fell on August 20 at 02:47 UTC, the moon now sits about 116 degrees east of the sun along the sky. That angle is what puts it high in the south at nightfall and keeps it up well past midnight almost everywhere.
The terminator, the line dividing lunar day from night, has retreated far enough east that the western half of the disc is close to shadowless. What remains is a band of low-angle sunlight running down the eastern side, and that band is the only part worth pointing an instrument at. Along it, crater rims throw shadows across their own floors long enough to pick out in ordinary binoculars.
This is the stretch of the cycle experienced lunar observers actually prize. The full moon is flat and glaring; a thin crescent shows too little. A gibbous moon puts a wide, high, well-placed disc in the sky with a shadow line still running through it, and it does so at a convenient hour.
Moonrise and moonset times for August 22, 2026
All times below are local, calculated for the city centre, and come from the US Naval Observatory’s rise, set and twilight service. They shift by a few minutes across a large metropolitan area, and they matter as much as the moon phase today does, because a phase you cannot see from your latitude is of limited use.
| City | Moonrise | Moonset | Illumination |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 16:40 | 01:20 (Aug 23) | 73% |
| Chicago | 16:42 | 01:12 (Aug 23) | 74% |
| Los Angeles | 16:18 | 01:50 (Aug 23) | 75% |
| Toronto | 17:16 | 01:29 (Aug 23) | 73% |
| London | 17:36 | 00:12 (Aug 23) | 72% |
| Dubai | 14:52 | 01:16 (Aug 23) | 71% |
| New Delhi | 15:01 | 01:06 (Aug 23) | 70% |
| Mumbai | 14:53 | 01:50 (Aug 23) | 70% |
| Singapore | 14:33 | 02:52 (Aug 23) | 69% |
| Tokyo | 14:35 | 23:53 | 69% |
| Sydney | 11:47 | 03:06 (Aug 23) | 68% |
| Johannesburg | 12:41 | 03:12 (Aug 23) | 71% |
| Moonset is the one following that evening’s moonrise. Tokyo is the only city here where it falls before midnight on the 22nd; London clears midnight by twelve minutes. | |||
Tokyo is the only city on this list where the moon sets before midnight, and London clears it by twelve minutes. Everywhere else in the Americas, the Gulf, South Asia and the southern hemisphere, the moon is still up when the date changes.
The spread in viewing time is worth noticing. Sydney holds the moon for more than fifteen hours; London gets it for six and a half. Same moon, same night. The difference is that a moon running this far south in declination barely clears a British horizon before it starts back down, while it passes almost overhead at southern latitudes.
Apogee today: the smallest disc of the month
Apogee is the far end of an orbit that is not a circle. The moon’s distance from Earth swings between roughly 356,500 km at its closest and 406,700 km at its farthest, and today’s 404,644 km sits near the upper end of that range without quite touching it.
The practical consequence arrives on August 28. A full moon that occurs while the moon is still well out toward apogee is a small full moon, the opposite of the supermoon framing that gets attached to the perigee case. The Sturgeon Moon next week will be perfectly ordinary to look at and slightly below average in apparent size, and neither fact will be obvious without a measurement.
The Sturgeon Moon and a 96 percent eclipse on August 28
The Full Moon falls on August 28 at 04:20 UTC, and it carries a deep partial lunar eclipse covering about 96 percent of the disc at maximum.
The partial phase begins at 02:33 UTC and greatest eclipse comes at 04:13 UTC. At 96 percent it will look very nearly total, with the immersed portion turning the copper red of sunlight filtered through Earth’s atmosphere and a thin bright sliver holding out along one edge. That sliver is the whole difference between this and a blood moon, and it is the part photographs will struggle with, because the brightness range between the lit rim and the shadowed disc is wider than a single exposure can hold.
Viewing is best across most of the Americas, where the moon sits high throughout. Across Africa and Europe the eclipse falls near moonset and needs a clear western horizon. It is the companion to the solar eclipse that opened this cycle, which The Eastern Herald covered when totality crossed Spain for the first time since 1905. NASA’s own overview of the eight lunar phases lays out the full sequence for anyone following the cycle from new moon to new moon.
Between now and then the moon only brightens, which means the deep-sky observing window for August is effectively shut. Yesterday the moon was still a day short of apogee and about nine percentage points dimmer. Tonight it is brighter and marginally smaller, and both trends run the same way until the 28th.
Where the moon sits in the zodiac today
The moon spends almost all of August 22 in Sagittarius, crossing into Capricorn at 21:05 UTC. For most of the Americas that ingress lands in the late afternoon or evening; for Asia and Australia it falls after midnight, on the 23rd local time.
In astrological practice a waxing gibbous is read as the refining phase, the stretch where whatever was begun at the new moon gets adjusted rather than started, and the Sagittarius to Capricorn handover is treated as a shift from breadth to consolidation. Our daily horoscope tracks the transits in full.
That is a separate tradition from the astronomy and the two are worth keeping apart. The observable facts behind the moon phase today are the illumination, the age, the distance, the rise and set times and the eclipse geometry. What those positions are taken to mean belongs to a different discipline with a different history.
Moon phase today: frequently asked questions
What is the moon phase today, August 22, 2026?
A Waxing Gibbous, about 72 percent illuminated and roughly ten days past the new moon of August 12. It is two days past first quarter.
Does the moon phase today affect the tides?
Only mildly at this point in the cycle. The largest tidal range comes at new and full moon, when the sun and moon pull in line. A gibbous moon sits between those extremes, and today’s apogee distance weakens the lunar contribution slightly further.
Is the moon at apogee today?
Yes. Apogee fell at 08:20 UTC on August 22 at a distance of 404,644 km, the farthest point of this orbit and the smallest apparent disc of the month.
Why do sites disagree on the illumination figure?
Because it changes continuously. On August 22 the lit fraction climbs from about 68 percent at 00:00 UTC to nearly 76 percent by day’s end, so anything in that range is a legitimate answer for the same date depending on time zone and reference moment.
When is the next full moon?
August 28, 2026 at 04:20 UTC. It is the Sturgeon Moon, and it coincides with a deep partial lunar eclipse covering about 96 percent of the lunar disc.
Why does the moon set after midnight now?
Because it is past first quarter. A waxing gibbous rises in mid to late afternoon and stays up well past midnight, gaining roughly fifty minutes each night until the full moon, which rises at sunset and sets at sunrise.
Can I still see earthshine?
No. Earthshine needs a crescent thin enough not to overwhelm it, below roughly 40 percent illumination. At nearly three quarters lit it is out of reach until the waning crescent in early September.
Is a waxing gibbous good for stargazing?
Not for faint objects. The moon is up for most of the dark hours and bright enough to wash out the sky. It is, however, one of the better nights of the month to look at the moon itself.
When is the next new moon?
September 11, 2026 at 03:28 UTC. That closes the cycle that began with the total solar eclipse of August 12.
The moon phase today gains roughly one percentage point of illumination every ninety minutes at this stage of the cycle, so this page is accurate for August 22, 2026. Check back tomorrow for the next update in the series.
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