Black Moon

by Dominic Ford, Editor
Last updated: 4 Mar 2021

The Full Moon, imaged by Tom Ruen.

In recent years, the term black moon has been coined to describe a month which contains either no full moon, or no new moon, or perhaps even two new moons.

The usefulness of the term is rather limited, since not only is there much disagreement about what it actually means, but by any of these definitions, it is not possible to observe a black moon.

List of possible black moons 1950–2299

Even though the Moon shows the same phase at any given moment to all observers across the Earth, any particular full moon and new moon may occur in different months depending on the timezone of the observer. This may lead to differences between published lists of black moons.

In the lists below all times are calculated in universal time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). According to that definition, the following months do not contain any full moons:

Feb 1961
Feb 1999
Feb 2018
Feb 2037
Feb 2067
Feb 2094
Feb 2113
Feb 2143
Feb 2162
Feb 2181
Feb 2200
Feb 2219
Feb 2238
Feb 2257
Feb 2287
Feb 2295

The following months do not contain any new moons:

Feb 1957
Feb 1995
Feb 2014
Feb 2033
Feb 2052
Feb 2071
Feb 2090
Feb 2109
Feb 2128
Feb 2147
Feb 2166
Feb 2185
Feb 2215
Feb 2242
Feb 2261
Feb 2291

The following months contain two new moons:

Oct 1951
Jun 1954
Jan 1957
Mar 1957
Oct 1959
Jul 1962
May 1965
Dec 1967
Aug 1970
Jun 1973
Jan 1976
Oct 1978
Jul 1981
May 1984
Dec 1986
Aug 1989
Jun 1992
Jan 1995
Mar 1995
Oct 1997
Jul 2000
May 2003
Dec 2005
Aug 2008
Jul 2011
Jan 2014
Mar 2014
Oct 2016
Aug 2019
Apr 2022
Dec 2024
Aug 2027
Jun 2030
Jan 2033
Mar 2033
Oct 2035
Aug 2038
Apr 2041
Dec 2043
Aug 2046
May 2049
Jan 2052
Mar 2052
Oct 2054
Jul 2057
Apr 2060
Nov 2062
Aug 2065
May 2068
Jan 2071
Mar 2071
Oct 2073
Jul 2076
May 2079
Nov 2081
Aug 2084
Jun 2087
Dec 2089
Mar 2090
Oct 2092
Jul 2095
May 2098
Dec 2100
Oct 2103
Jul 2106
Jan 2109
Mar 2109
Dec 2111
Aug 2114
May 2117
Jan 2120
Sep 2122
Jul 2125
Jan 2128
Mar 2128
Nov 2130
Aug 2133
May 2136
Dec 2138
Aug 2141
Jul 2144
Jan 2147
Mar 2147
Oct 2149
Aug 2152
May 2155
Dec 2157
Aug 2160
Jul 2163
Jan 2166
Mar 2166
Oct 2168
Aug 2171
May 2174
Dec 2176
Sep 2179
Jun 2182
Jan 2185
Mar 2185
Oct 2187
Aug 2190
May 2193
Dec 2195
Sep 2198
Jul 2201
Apr 2204
Dec 2206
Aug 2209
May 2212
Jan 2215
Mar 2215
Oct 2217
Jul 2220
May 2223
Dec 2225
Aug 2228
Jun 2231
Dec 2233
Oct 2236
Jul 2239
Jan 2242
Apr 2242
Dec 2244
Aug 2247
Jun 2250
Dec 2252
Oct 2255
Jul 2258
Jan 2261
Mar 2261
Dec 2263
Aug 2266
May 2269
Jan 2272
Sep 2274
Jul 2277
Mar 2280
Nov 2282
Aug 2285
May 2288
Jan 2291
Mar 2291
Sep 2293
Jul 2296
Apr 2299

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