Coming up soon is the last phase of the lunar cycle, the new moon. During a new moon, the side of the Moon that faces the Earth is directly aligned with the Earth so it is not illuminated by the Sun at all. It is also up during the day and close to the Sun, so it is harder to see safely.

This particular event is useful for several reasons. For visual astronomers, faint deep sky objects will not be washed out by the Moon’s glare. This makes the days around the new moon the best time to see these objects. Another thing that is easier to see on a full moon is a meteor shower. One, the Draconids, is coming up early next month and, it will fall around this new moon. We’ll have more details on that closer to the event.

Another reason a new moon is a useful event is it marks the highest ocean tides of the cycle. If you remember the time the container ship Ever Given was stuck in the Suez Canal back in March 2021, truly a highlight of pandemic blursday, it was refloated after six days due to the effort of Egyptian workers and also the high tides of the new moon.

The new moon also carries cultural significance. The Islamic calendar is based on the lunar cycle, so the new moon marks the beginning of a new month. The holy month of Ramadan begins and ends with visual observation of the new moon, or after thirty days if the Moon cannot be seen. In western culture, the new moon is the first phase of the lunar cycle.

Back to what you can see in the sky during a new moon.

With the equinox having happened a few days ago, the nights are getting longer and colder in the Northern Hemisphere. There are lots of cool things to see now and in the coming months in these improved conditions. Perhaps the most interesting object to see is the Great Orion Nebula. This object is bright enough that you can see it with the unaided eye as something that isn’t a star, in between two actual stars in the constellation Orion. 

With binoculars such as 10x50s or 15x70s, you can see the fine details in the arms of the nebula and the smaller De Marin’s Nebula below. In a small telescope, you can see much more detail, including the Trapezium Cluster, the four stars at the center of the Orion nebula. In a bigger telescope, with at least a 127-millimeter aperture, you can see at least six stars in this cluster. They are some of the youngest stars in this star-forming nebula, the closest one to Earth.

Finally, Orion’s stars can be used to find other constellations where there are other cool things to look at in a telescope, especially during a new moon. For example, following the outer stars in the belt down leads you to Sirius and the core of the Milky Way, rich in deep-sky objects. The other direction leads to Aldebaran, which is in the constellation Taurus. Near Aldebaran is Messier 45, the Pleiades star cluster. This is one of the greatest open clusters to see in any optic from the unaided eye to low-power binoculars to a telescope. It is full of dozens (actually hundreds) of bright young stars and even some nebulosity, or gas, illuminated by the stars’ light.

Remember, go outside and look up.

More Information

New Moon – the Invisible Phase (timeanddate)

Orion’s Belt points to Sirius on September mornings (EarthSky)

Trapezium Cluster (Messier Objects)