New Year's Eve 2026 Moon: Waning Crescent Rises After Midnight, 1:46 a.m. in New York

The Moon is below the horizon at midnight on New Year’s Eve 2026 in all 12 U.S. cities checked, and in New York it does not rise until 1:46 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Friday, Jan. 1, 2027, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). USNO lists the phase as a waning crescent on both dates; the Moon is up on the morning of Dec. 31 (rise 12:40 a.m., set 11:42 a.m. in New York) and rises again at 1:46 a.m. on Jan. 1. The printable for this story lists the moonset and moonrise for each city on one page.

Moonrise and moonset at midnight on New Year’s Eve 2026, by city

All times are local standard time (December is outside daylight time) and come from USNO’s one-day Moon data for Thursday, Dec. 31, 2026 and Friday, Jan. 1, 2027. A Moon that sets before midnight and rises after it is below the horizon at midnight, so the “Moon at midnight” column follows from the two USNO times in each row. The last column counts the time from midnight to moonrise.

City (time zone)	Moonset, Dec. 31	Moonrise, Jan. 1	Moon at local midnight	Moonrise after midnight
New York (EST)	11:42 a.m.	1:46 a.m.	Below the horizon	1 h 46 min
Atlanta (EST)	12:34 p.m.	2:16 a.m.	Below the horizon	2 h 16 min
Miami (EST)	12:27 p.m.	1:46 a.m.	Below the horizon	1 h 46 min
Chicago (Central Standard Time, CST)	11:35 a.m.	1:45 a.m.	Below the horizon	1 h 45 min
Dallas (CST)	12:26 p.m.	2:06 a.m.	Below the horizon	2 h 06 min
Denver (Mountain Standard Time, MST)	11:49 a.m.	1:53 a.m.	Below the horizon	1 h 53 min
Phoenix (MST)	12:27 p.m.	2:11 a.m.	Below the horizon	2 h 11 min
Las Vegas (Pacific Standard Time, PST)	11:36 a.m.	1:29 a.m.	Below the horizon	1 h 29 min
Los Angeles (PST)	11:52 a.m.	1:38 a.m.	Below the horizon	1 h 38 min
Seattle (PST)	11:45 a.m.	2:25 a.m.	Below the horizon	2 h 25 min
Anchorage (Alaska Standard Time, AKST)	11:55 a.m.	4:19 a.m.	Below the horizon	4 h 19 min
Honolulu (Hawaii Standard Time, HST)	12:50 p.m.	2:03 a.m.	Below the horizon	2 h 03 min

Las Vegas has the earliest moonrise of the dozen at 1:29 a.m. PST, and Anchorage the latest at 4:19 a.m. AKST. Midnight in New York is 9 p.m. PST, so a West Coast watch party that follows the New York countdown is even further from moonrise: Los Angeles does not see the Moon until 1:38 a.m. PST.

Why does New York show a moonrise on Dec. 31 and another on Jan. 1?

On Dec. 31 USNO lists a moonrise at 12:40 a.m. EST and a moonset at 11:42 a.m. EST, so the Moon is up only in the small hours and the morning. Then comes a gap with no Moon, and the next moonrise is at 1:46 a.m. EST on Jan. 1, an hour and six minutes later than the Dec. 31 moonrise. A reader who sees “12:40 a.m.” under Dec. 31 and reads it as the New Year’s Eve moonrise is looking at the wrong night.

The table below gives both days in full for every city. Every moonset falls between 11:35 a.m. and 1:27 p.m., and none lands after midnight, so no moonset needs to be read from the next date’s listing.

City	Dec. 31 moonrise	Dec. 31 moonset	Jan. 1 moonrise	Jan. 1 moonset
New York	12:40 a.m.	11:42 a.m.	1:46 a.m.	12:07 p.m.
Atlanta	1:15 a.m.	12:34 p.m.	2:16 a.m.	1:04 p.m.
Miami	12:50 a.m.	12:27 p.m.	1:46 a.m.	1:01 p.m.
Chicago	12:39 a.m.	11:35 a.m.	1:45 a.m.	12:00 p.m.
Dallas	1:06 a.m.	12:26 p.m.	2:06 a.m.	12:57 p.m.
Denver	12:48 a.m.	11:49 a.m.	1:53 a.m.	12:15 p.m.
Phoenix	1:10 a.m.	12:27 p.m.	2:11 a.m.	12:58 p.m.
Las Vegas	12:26 a.m.	11:36 a.m.	1:29 a.m.	12:05 p.m.
Los Angeles	12:37 a.m.	11:52 a.m.	1:38 a.m.	12:22 p.m.
Seattle	1:13 a.m.	11:45 a.m.	2:25 a.m.	12:05 p.m.
Anchorage	2:45 a.m.	11:55 a.m.	4:19 a.m.	11:54 a.m.
Honolulu	1:09 a.m.	12:50 p.m.	2:03 a.m.	1:27 p.m.

What is the Moon phase on New Year’s Eve 2026?

USNO lists the phase as a waning crescent for Dec. 31, 2026 and for Jan. 1, 2027 in every city above. The Moon passed Last Quarter on Dec. 30 and the next New Moon comes on Jan. 7. Illumination percentages are left out of this story: the USNO one-day tool returned different percentages for New York and Los Angeles on the same date, so there is no single figure to quote for New Year’s Eve.

USNO’s phase tables are in Universal Time (UT), the clock the observatory’s notes name for them, and give the phase and time only; Cold Moon and Wolf Moon are folk names, not USNO labels. The table converts each moment to EST, five hours behind UT.

Phase	USNO time (UT)	Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Full Moon (Cold Moon, a folk name)	1:28 UT, Dec. 24, 2026	8:28 p.m., Wed., Dec. 23, 2026
Last Quarter	18:59 UT, Dec. 30, 2026	1:59 p.m., Wed., Dec. 30, 2026
New Moon	20:24 UT, Jan. 7, 2027	3:24 p.m., Thu., Jan. 7, 2027
Full Moon (Wolf Moon, a folk name)	12:17 UT, Jan. 22, 2027	7:17 a.m., Fri., Jan. 22, 2027

The Cold Moon date is a good example of why the zone matters: it is Dec. 24 in UT and Dec. 23 in New York, as the Cold Moon section of our supermoon story explains. The full list of 2027 phases is in the 2027 full moon calendar.

How long is the Moon up before sunrise on New Year’s Day in New York?

In New York the Moon rises at 1:46 a.m. EST on Jan. 1 and the Sun rises at 7:20 a.m. EST, per USNO, so the Moon is above the horizon for 5 hours 34 minutes before sunrise. It sets at 12:07 p.m. EST, in daylight. For the evening itself, that means no Moon: it is below the horizon from the late-morning moonset on Dec. 31 until after the New Year begins.

The next sky event after the holiday is the Quadrantid meteor shower on the night of Jan. 3-4, 2027; the dates and peak time are in our Quadrantid story. For New Year’s Day plans and midnight times in other places, see the 2027 New Year’s countdown by time zone and what is open on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

How these New Year’s Eve moon times were computed

Each city’s times come from the USNO one-day rise, set and transit data for the two dates, set to the city’s central coordinates and its standard-time offset: -5 hours for New York, Atlanta and Miami, -6 for Chicago and Dallas, -7 for Denver and Phoenix, -8 for Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Seattle, -9 for Anchorage and -10 for Honolulu. USNO prints the times on a 24-hour clock; this story writes them with a.m. and p.m., so 01:46 in the data is 1:46 a.m. Times were pulled on Nov. 3, 2026. Each city uses a single set of coordinates, so a spot far from the center can differ.

Both months are on one printable each: December 2026 and January 2027. The date of the holiday itself is on the New Year’s Eve page.