# Moon Phase and Lunar Calendar (`mangudai/moon-phase-lunar-calendar`) Actor

Build a day by day lunar calendar for any date range and place. Get the moon phase, illumination, moon age, distance, exact new, first quarter, full, and last quarter times, plus optional moonrise and moonset. Offline and zero maintenance, no API key needed.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/mangudai/moon-phase-lunar-calendar.md
- **Developed by:** [Mangudäi](https://apify.com/mangudai) (community)
- **Categories:** Travel, Open source, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.01 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Moon Phase and Lunar Calendar

Get a clean, day by day lunar calendar for any date range and any place on Earth. This actor returns the moon phase, the percent illuminated, the moon's age, its distance from Earth, the exact times of new, first quarter, full, and last quarter moons, and optional moonrise and moonset for a location you choose.

Everything is computed offline from a built in ephemeris. There is no API to call, no key to manage, and no website to scrape, so results are fast and the tool keeps working without maintenance.

### What you get

One row per day with these fields:

- date and weekday
- phase emoji and phase name, from new moon through waning crescent
- illumination as a percentage
- moon age in days since the last new moon
- distance from Earth in kilometres
- principal phase and its exact time, on the days a new, first quarter, full, or last quarter moon occurs
- moonrise and moonset for your latitude and longitude, when you ask for them

Days with no moonrise or no moonset, which happen about once a month, are left blank rather than guessed.

### Who uses it

Gardeners and planting calendars that follow the lunar cycle. Anglers timing trips around the moon. Photographers planning full moon and dark sky shoots. Event and wedding planners who want to know how bright the night will be. Anyone building a calendar app or almanac that needs reliable phase data.

### Input

All fields have sensible defaults, so a run with no changes returns a 30 day calendar starting today for London in UTC.

| Field | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Start date | First day, in YYYY-MM-DD. Empty means today. | today |
| Number of days | How many days to return, one row each. | 30 |
| Include moonrise and moonset | Add rise and set times for the location below. | on |
| Latitude | Observer latitude in decimal degrees. | 51.5074 |
| Longitude | Observer longitude in decimal degrees. | -0.1278 |
| Time zone | IANA name such as UTC, Europe/London, or America/New_York. All dates and times use it. | UTC |

### Example output

```json
{
  "date": "2026-07-29",
  "weekday": "Wednesday",
  "phaseName": "Full Moon",
  "phaseEmoji": "🌕",
  "illuminationPercent": 100.0,
  "moonAgeDays": 15.09,
  "distanceKm": 399901,
  "principalPhase": "Full Moon",
  "principalPhaseTime": "2026-07-29 14:35",
  "moonrise": "2026-07-29 20:41",
  "moonset": "2026-07-29 04:52"
}
```

### Accuracy

Phase, illumination, distance, and the principal phase times come from the ephem library, the Python binding to the long standing XEphem astronomy engine. Phase times are accurate to within about a minute. Moonrise and moonset use standard atmospheric refraction and are accurate to a minute or two, which is the usual precision for an almanac.

### Notes on time zones

The date of a full or new moon can differ by one calendar day depending on the zone you pick, because the exact moment is a single instant worldwide. Set the time zone to your own to see the calendar the way your sky shows it.

# Actor input Schema

## `startDate` (type: `string`):

First day of the calendar in YYYY-MM-DD. Leave empty to start from today.

## `days` (type: `integer`):

How many days to output. One row per day.

## `includeRiseSet` (type: `boolean`):

Add moonrise and moonset times for the latitude and longitude below.

## `latitude` (type: `number`):

Observer latitude in decimal degrees, used for moonrise and moonset. The default is London.

## `longitude` (type: `number`):

Observer longitude in decimal degrees, used for moonrise and moonset. The default is London.

## `timezone` (type: `string`):

IANA time zone for all dates and times, for example UTC, Europe/London, or America/New_York.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startDate": "",
  "days": 30,
  "includeRiseSet": true,
  "latitude": 51.5074,
  "longitude": -0.1278,
  "timezone": "UTC"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One row per day with moon phase, illumination, and rise and set times.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("mangudai/moon-phase-lunar-calendar").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("mangudai/moon-phase-lunar-calendar").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call mangudai/moon-phase-lunar-calendar --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,mangudai/moon-phase-lunar-calendar"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/4apC9eGdxxkBrycNc/builds/lYyAUmR7cHhfmkpVU/openapi.json