Insert moon phase in Daily Note with Templater

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Hi folks :sun_with_face:

I finally implemented something i wanted to see in my daily notes for quite some time : the current moon phase!

In my note, today, it looks like this :

🌔 Gibbeuse Croissante

Here is how i did it.

Concept

With the help of a javascript function, the moon phase is derived from the file’s date and inserted in a daily note through its template and Templater.

Requirements & Dependencies

Preliminary setup

  • Place the moon_phase.js script inside the folder of your choice. I chose Atlas/Ressources/scripts in my vault.
  • In the Templater settings, under User Scripts Functions, locate the scripts folder and Refresh 🔄 the Detected User Scripts.

Template implementation

This implementation is relative to the file’s title.
For my usage, i wanted to insert the moon phase inside my daily notes, which have a YYYY-MM-DD file title format. I already use Templater to generate various elements of the note based on the file title (it allows to create the file whenever i want and still have relative dates inside it).

  • Open your daily note’s template ― i won’t detail how to set it up if you’re not using any yet, it’s easy enough to find around here.
  • On a new line, or wherever you want the moon phase displayed, insert :
    <% tp.user.moon_phase(tp) %>
  • For the most basic (northern hemisphere, english) implementation, that’s enough!

Customization

In order for a bit more control over the information displayed, I was about to write that you could play inside the javascript file; but i actually took the time and fun to expand it so that we can instead provide the function with optional parameters.

<% tp.user.moon_phase(tp, language, display, separator, title_format, hemisphere) %>

  • language : the text’s language; currently, only "en" (default), "fr", and "es" are supported
  • display : what is being rendered
    • "et" for emoji and text (default)
    • "te" for text and emoji
    • "e" for emoji only
    • "t" for text only
  • separator : the character between emoji and text; default : " " (space)
  • title_format : your daily note’s title format; default : "YYYY-MM-DD"
  • hemisphere : the hemisphere you are in; will influence which emoji is shown, as the moon is viewed upside down; default : "N"

If you don’t provide any other parameter than the mandatory tp, it will default to :
<% tp.user.moon_phase(tp, "en", "et", " ", "YYYY-MM-DD", "N") %>

If you want to provide only some parameters, you have to enter them in order, and can skip the ones you do not need to replace by writing undefined.

For example, Chile’s moon phase, with emoji and text separated with a bar :
<% tp.user.moon_phase(tp, "es", undefined, " | ", undefined, "S") %>

will be interpreted as :
<% tp.user.moon_phase(tp, "es", "et", " | ", "YYYY-MM-DD", "S") %>

and rendered today as :
🌖 | Luna Gibosa Creciente

For further customization, for example to change the text’s language or which emojis are used (why though ?), feel free to modify the javascript file, which you can open and save in a text editor.

Thanks and references

Contribute

Please mention any bug you find, or useful language translations that could be implemented.
For my use it works like it is, so i can’t promise any further update. But i might, once in a while.
I am not a professional developper, so there might be innefficiencies in the code, but i believe it’s good enough!

Hope you find it useful and informative!

Ji :full_moon_with_face:

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Thanks. This was just what I needed and instructions were clear for a non-coder. Appreciated.