Moonrise Times: Why the Moon Rises About 50 Minutes Later Each Day

Step outside at the same hour two nights in a row and the Sun will be close to where it was the day before. The Moon will not. It rises a little later every day, so over one month it slides around the whole clock: morning, midday, sunset, the middle of the night, and back to morning.

This guide explains the rule behind that slide and how big the daily delay is. It shows what each phase does with the clock, why the delay is sometimes smaller than average, and how to find a Moon that rises around midnight in the Rise & Set Dial.

The 50-minute rule

NASA's skywatching answers state the rule directly. The Moon rises, on average, about 50 minutes later each day during its month-long cycle. The cause is the Moon's own motion. It travels around Earth in its orbit, and Earth spins beneath it once every 24-hour day. When Earth finishes a full turn, the Moon has already moved a little along its orbit, so it does not rise above the horizon until Earth has turned a little further.

NASA gives a way to picture the shift. Against the fixed stars, the Moon moves toward the East by about 12 to 13 degrees each night. Earth needs extra time to bring the horizon around to the Moon again, and that extra time is the later moonrise.

NOAA's tide pages describe the same effect as a longer day. A solar day lasts 24 hours, while a lunar day lasts 24 hours and 50 minutes. The Moon revolves around Earth in the same direction that Earth rotates, so it takes Earth an extra 50 minutes to catch up to the Moon.

How the sources round the number

The sources do not use identical wording. NASA says about 50 minutes. NOAA says 24 hours and 50 minutes for the lunar day. The U.S. Naval Observatory says the time between successive moonrises is about 25 hours, or about one hour longer than the 24-hour day. These describe the same slide, rounded two ways, because 50 minutes is a little less than an hour.

Moonrise by phase

NASA lists a typical rise and set time for each phase. Read the table as a pattern, not as a clock. NASA itself says to check local predictions for exact moonrise and moonset information.

Read down the Rises column and you can watch the slide happen. The Naval Observatory explains the geometry. The phases are caused by the relative positions of the Moon and Sun in the sky. At full Moon the two sit at nearly opposite positions, which is why it rises about the time of sunset. First and last quarter occur when the Sun and Moon are about 90 degrees apart in the sky. Earth turns once a day, so 90 degrees is a quarter of a turn, or about six hours. At first quarter the Moon rises about six hours after the Sun. At last quarter it rises about six hours before the Sun. NASA's table agrees: midday for the first, the middle of the night for the third.

How the delay adds up over a month

NASA gives the cycle of phases as 29.5 days, and the Naval Observatory calls the days counted from New Moon the Moon's age. Multiply the daily delay by the length of the cycle: 29.5 days × 50 minutes is 1,475 minutes, or about 24.6 hours. That is one whole day. After a full cycle, moonrise has slid all the way around the clock and the Moon rises with the Sun again.

The check works because NASA says the new Moon rises with the Sun. Count the delay from sunrise, and the quarter points land where NASA's table puts them.

The ages in the table are one quarter, one half and three quarters of 29.5 days. The delays are the ages multiplied by 50 minutes and rounded. Treat them as a way to see the pattern, because real moonrise also depends on your place and the time of year.

When the delay is not 50 minutes

The 50 minutes is an average, and NASA words it that way. NASA Earth Observatory points out a case where the daily change shrinks. In the higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere, the day-to-day change in the time of moonrise is smallest in the months surrounding the fall equinox. NASA ties this consistency to the small angle between the horizon and the ecliptic, the apparent sky path traveled by both the Moon and the Sun, at that time of year.

The Naval Observatory describes an oddity in the other direction. Moonrise and moonset can occur at any time of day, and it is possible that a moonrise or moonset does not occur at a specific place on a given date. Because successive moonrises are about 25 hours apart, its tables show blanks for those days, and the gaps occur approximately once every 25 days.

The Naval Observatory also says that its calculation takes no account of the Moon's phase. The Moon is always treated as a full disk in the sky, and the upper edge might be dark. So a moonrise time marks when the disk reaches the horizon, even when most of it is unlit.

Common mistakes

• Expecting the same moonrise every night. It shifts by about 50 minutes a day on average, so tonight's time is not tomorrow's.
• Treating 50 minutes as a fixed number. NASA says "on average," and NASA Earth Observatory shows that the daily change is smallest around the fall equinox at high northern latitudes.
• Using the full Moon rule for every phase. Rising at sunset belongs to the full Moon. A first quarter Moon rises around midday, and a last quarter Moon around the middle of the night.
• Reading a rise time as "visible right now." In bright daytime skies the Moon looks pale, so a Moon that rose in the morning may be hard to spot at first. The daytime Moon guide explains what to look for.
• Trusting a table to the minute. The Naval Observatory says computed rise and set times may be in error by a minute or more, and mountains on the horizon can change them even more.

Try it in the instrument

Open the Rise & Set Dial and set the sky to a Moon that rises around the middle of the night. The target is a Moon age of about 22 days, which is the last quarter, three quarters of the way through the 29.5-day cycle.

The dial pictures a place at middle latitudes near an equinox, with sunrise at 6 AM and sunset at 6 PM. At New Moon the Moon rises with the Sun, at 6 AM. Each day of age pushes moonrise later by about 0.81 hour, or 49 minutes, which is the dial's version of NASA's 50 minutes. The rule is simple: moonrise equals 6 AM plus 0.81 hour for each day of age. At age 22 that is 6 plus 17.8 hours, or about 11:50 PM, which is the middle of the night.

If you get stuck, work backward. Midnight is 18 hours after 6 AM, and 18 divided by 0.81 is about 22 days. NASA's table gives the same answer in words: the Moon that rises around the middle of the night is the third quarter Moon. You can read more about that phase in the last quarter Moon guide.

The game accepts a range of ages, not one exact number. That makes sense here, because a one-day error moves moonrise by less than an hour. The dial is a simplified model, so use local predictions when you need the real time at your address.

Questions people ask

What time does the Moon rise tonight?

Look at its shape for a rough guess. A Moon that is about half lit and growing rises around midday, and a full Moon rises about sunset. For an exact time, use local predictions. The Naval Observatory publishes rise and set tables to a precision of one minute.

Can a day pass with no moonrise?

Yes. Successive moonrises are about 25 hours apart, so now and then a calendar day has none. The Naval Observatory says these gaps in its tables occur approximately once every 25 days.

Why does moonrise change so little around the fall equinox?

At higher northern latitudes, the path of the Moon and Sun meets the horizon at a small angle at that time of year. NASA Earth Observatory says this makes the day-to-day change in moonrise smallest in the months surrounding the fall equinox.

Is the lunar day the same as the lunar month?

No. NOAA's lunar day is 24 hours and 50 minutes, the extra time Earth needs to catch up to the Moon. The cycle of phases is the much longer 29.5 days that NASA and the Naval Observatory give.

Sources

• Skywatching FAQ, NASA Science. https://science.nasa.gov/skywatching/faq/. Opened November 10, 2026.
• Moon Phases, NASA Science. https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-phases/. Opened November 10, 2026.
• Rise/Set/Transit Times for Major Solar System Bodies and Bright Stars, U.S. Naval Observatory, Astronomical Applications Department. https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/mrst. Opened November 10, 2026.
• Frequency of Tides - The Lunar Day, NOAA National Ocean Service. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_tides/tides05_lunarday.html. Opened November 10, 2026.
• Earth from the Moon: A Different Perspective on the Harvest Moon, NASA Earth Observatory. https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/earth-from-the-moon-a-different-perspective-on-the-harvest-moon-4882/. Opened November 10, 2026.
• Phases of the Moon and Percent of the Moon Illuminated, U.S. Naval Observatory, Astronomical Applications Department. https://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/moon_phases. Opened November 10, 2026.
• Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions, U.S. Naval Observatory, Astronomical Applications Department. https://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/RST_defs. Opened November 10, 2026.

We opened each source ourselves on the date shown. The drawings are our own and were checked against the numbers in these sources.

Read next

• When the Moon SetsA Moon sets roughly half a day after it rises, and each day it sets about 50 minutes later.
• The Moon in DaytimeThe Moon spends nearly as many hours above the horizon in daylight as at night.