Moon Phases

Adds a sidebar widget that display the current moon phase. The plugin can also display in which zodiac sign the moon is, how old the moon is and details like distance, ecliptic latitude and ecliptic longitude.

    In addition of English, the plugin comes with various translations:

  • Bulgarian
  • Dutch
  • French
  • German
  • Hebrew
  • Hungarian
  • Lithuanian
  • Polish
  • Russian
  • Spanish

Translations credits go to Alex Kortan for Polish, Asen Kovachev for Bulgarian, Fat Cower for Russian, Kristina R for Lithuanian, Milly Rondèl for Dutch, Patsy for German, Rami Yushuvaev for Hebrew, Tamas Koos for Hungarian and Zhares for Spanish.

Please refer to the WordPress Codex for more information about activating the translation.

If you want to help translating the plugin to your language, please contact me. If you already know how to translate wordpress plugins, have a look at the moon-phases.pot file which contains all the definitions. You may use a gettext editor like Poedit for that purpose.

Download
Download the plugin here: [download#7#size#nohits]

Installation

To install the plug-in:

  • Unpack the *.zip file and extract the /moon-quotes/ folder and the files
  • Using an FTP program, upload the full /moon-quotes/ folder to your WordPress plugins directory (Example: /wp-content/plugins)
  • Go to Plugins > Installed and activate the plugin.

To add the widget:

  • Go to Appearance > Widgets, add the widget to the sidebar of your choice and save.

To use the shortcode:

  • Simply add

    Current Moon Phase

    Waxing Crescent Moon
    Waxing Crescent Moon

    The moon is currently in Taurus
    The moon is 3 days old
    to your posts or your pages.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the widget displaying the wrong moon sign?

  • First of all, the plugin display the moon sign, not the sun sign which is the one that astrology websites usually talk about. Calculations for the moon sign are done for the northern hemisphere in local time, so you may see differences with other websites as some of them display the moon sign calculated in universal time (GMT). For example, Joe’s Web Tools server is in Los Angeles and display the correct calculations for pacific standard time (GMT-8).

Is the plugin compatible with versions of WordPress ealier to 2.8?

  • No. Because of the new widget implementation, you need to use WordPress 2.8 or later. If you are using an earlier version of WordPress, you can try using Moon Phases version 2.2.1 but, really, you should upgrade.

How can I support this plugin?

  • If you enjoy this plugin and would like to help with the development, please consider donating. Otherwise, spread the word, report bugs and give this plugin a good rating.

How do I report a bug?

  • If you find any bugs with the plugin or if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment to let me know.

Version history
The current version of the plugin is 3.1
The plugin requires WordPress to be at least version 2.5
The plugin has been tested with wordpress version up to 2.8.2

3.1

  • Compatibility check with WordPress 2.8.2
  • Integration of the Russian translation
  • Update of the Lithuanian translation

3.0

  • Compatibility check with WordPress 2.8.1
  • New
    Current Moon Phase

    Waxing Crescent Moon
    Waxing Crescent Moon

    The moon is currently in Taurus
    The moon is 3 days old
    shortcode
  • New WordPress 2.8 widget structure

2.2.1

  • Compatibility check with WordPress 2.8

2.2

  • Fixed the distance to the earth that was displaying the moon age
  • Integration of Bulgarian translation
  • Integration of Hebrew translation
  • Integration of Polish translation
  • Internal changes to improve compatibility

2.1

  • Integration of German translation
  • Integration of Lithuanian translation
  • Integration of Spanish translation
  • The moon sign is now based on the vernal equinox

2.0

  • Integration of Dutch translation
  • Integration of French translation
  • Integration of Hungarian translation

1.0

  • Initial release

To do

  • Add an option to display the moon seen from the south hemisphere
  • Add an option to display the date of the next new moon
  • Add an option to display the date of the next full moon
  • Add an option to display the number of degrees the moon is in the zodiac sign
  • Add an option to display the zodiac sign as text, as a picture or both
  • Add an option to display the picture of the moon in different sizes

62 Comments to “Moon Phases”

  1. 1. Mike Says:
    March 9th, 2010 at 7:28 pm

    Can I remove the border? I found the line of code for the border in the php file but it doesn’t seem to control the border.

    $content = ”;

  2. 2. Ikedi Says:
    April 18th, 2010 at 1:13 am

    I appreciate the plug-in, keep up the good work

  3. 3. Tony Says:
    May 4th, 2010 at 12:42 am

    Hi, please tell me how can i change the text color in the moon-phases plugin to match my wordpress design ?

    Thanks!

  4. 4. jerryp49 Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 10:33 am

    Hello Joe,
    I followed the install directions to add the Moon Phases to my WordPress blog as a widget. However, when I refreshed my page, the border and wording are all there but not the moon picture.

    What did I do wrong?
    From a newbie,
    Jerry

  5. 5. Travitzki Says:
    June 25th, 2010 at 11:24 am

    I translated to portuguese and send to the email. Nice Plugin!

  6. 6. Slava Mikheev Says:
    July 16th, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    Belarussian translate from http://mikheev.biz/: http://mikheev.biz/translate/moon-phases_Belarussian.rar

  7. 7. Jerry Says:
    August 14th, 2010 at 7:19 pm

    Is there a way to brighten the moon phase up? At 5 days old, the moon is a bright crescent in the sky while the widget display just barely shows anything.

    I hope it’s fixable as I really like this widget! Thanks.

  8. 8. A.Art Says:
    October 13th, 2010 at 11:13 am

    Hello Joe!

    Thanx a llot for this widget – it is really great! And thanl that U added translation to different languages.

    BUt there is a problem with russian translation – few mistakes! I tried to fix them by myself in .mo file but i cant:(

    If U want i can send U back fixed translation so you can include it to new updated version.

    Best regards,

    A.Art

  9. 9. Soren Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 12:12 am

    What would be great is if the widget can show what degrees the moon will rise in the horizon from where you are situated. I think you can pull out information of what city you are in (google analytics can) and then calculate where and when the moon will rise in the horizon.
    That would be terrifict

    Thanks

  10. 10. FusionHost Says:
    December 12th, 2010 at 4:23 pm

    This seems like a great plugin. One question I have is, does it have a transparent background?

  11. 11. Predrag Says:
    December 22nd, 2010 at 5:59 am

    Hi – I’d like to translate it in Serbian.

    thanks for the plugin

  12. 12. Jerry Says:
    April 8th, 2011 at 10:34 am

    Is there a way to brighten the moon phase up?

    At 5 days old, the moon is a bright crescent in the sky while the widget display just barely shows anything.

    I hope it’s fixable as I really like this widget! Thanks.