Moon Age

Introduction

What I would like to define in this post is the term ‘moon age’. When I for one , first heard the term I thought that it was referring to the actual age of the moon in millions of years. But I was rather surprised when I instead of getting a figure in billions or millions of years, I got a figure in days. What is that I thought?

Moon Age – Two Views

Well the complete view point is that the term ‘moon age’ can be taken in an absolute sense or in a relative sense.

In the absolute sense it is the age of the moon since its very creation to the current time, now.

In the relative sense, it is has to do with the current phase of the moon, and how many days going back in time from now, to when the last new moon (no moon visible in the sky) was.

Moon Age in Days

Moon age expressed in days sees a new moon (i.e. no moon) as the death of the moon. It also sees that in the next day or two the Moon will be born again and will grow up bright and strong reaching a maximum (full moon) and then age, grow old and die again (new moon).

It takes the moon on average 27.55 days to go from a new moon back to a new new moon. So the life of the moon (in the relative sense) is on average 29.53 days. This time is also called a synodic month.

A full moon happens typically approximately 14 days after the new moon phase and so the age of the moon during full moon is typically approximately 14 days.

End.