Moonrise, Moonset & Moon Phase in Anchorage
Tonight's moon times for Anchorage (61.2181°, -149.9003°) — America/Anchorage — plus every full moon of 2026.
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Pick another date, or fine-tune the locationSet by latitude and the moon's 18.6-year cycle — true indefinitely, not just this year
- Moonrise arc
- 174°
- 6° N to 180° S
- Sunrise arc
- 112°
- The sun's whole range, for comparison
- Highest culmination
- 58°
- Above the horizon
- Lowest culmination
- 0°
- Can stay unseen all day
Can the moon stay up all day in Anchorage? Not quite. Anchorage is 0.2° of latitude short of the 61.4° line — about 20 km — so the moon always clears the horizon eventually. It does go the other way: at the far end of its swing the moon can stay below the horizon in Anchorage for a whole date, which is why a date with no moonrise at all is ordinary here.
All 13 of them, in America/Anchorage local time. A full moon is one instant worldwide, so the clock time is Anchorage's own.
| Full moon | Moonrise | Moonset | Rides highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, January 3 1:05 AM | 3:47 PM NNE | 11:38 AM | 56° Jan 3, 1:06 AM |
| Sunday, February 1 1:11 PM | 4:58 PM NE | 9:51 AM | 50° Feb 1, 12:49 AM |
| Tuesday, March 3 2:40 AM | 7:27 PM E | 7:56 AM | 36° Mar 3, 1:08 AM |
| Wednesday, April 1 6:14 PM | 9:06 PM ESE | 7:04 AM | 19° Apr 2, 2:12 AM |
| Friday, May 1 9:26 AM | 11:26 PM SE | 5:09 AM | 11° May 1, 1:36 AM |
| Sunday, May 31 12:48 AM · farthest of 2026 | 12:23 AM SSE | 3:24 AM | 2° May 31, 1:56 AM |
| Monday, June 29 3:59 PM | 12:33 AM SSE | 2:39 AM | 2° Jun 30, 2:26 AM |
| Wednesday, July 29 6:38 AM | 11:02 PM SE | 5:08 AM | 7° Jul 29, 2:00 AM |
| Thursday, August 27 8:20 PM | 9:10 PM ESE | 5:57 AM | 21° Aug 28, 2:11 AM |
| Saturday, September 26 8:50 AM | 7:16 PM ENE | 8:13 AM | 31° Sep 26, 1:33 AM |
| Sunday, October 25 8:13 PM | 5:26 PM NE | 9:01 AM | 47° Oct 26, 1:49 AM |
| Tuesday, November 24 5:55 AM | 2:49 PM NNE | 11:03 AM | 54° Nov 24, 12:28 AM |
| Wednesday, December 23 4:30 PM · nearest of 2026 | 2:15 PM NNE | 11:26 AM | 56° Dec 24, 1:23 AM |
Reading the table. Moonrise and moonset are for the local date shown, which is what the calculator gives for that date. Rides highest is the altitude at the moon's culmination nearest the full-moon instant, and carries its own date: a full moon culminates within about half a day of the instant, so it lands on the day before roughly as often as the day after. "None" means that date genuinely has no moonrise (or no moonset), which happens about once a month everywhere.
2026's nearest full moon over Anchorage is Wednesday, December 23 at 356,740 km, and the farthest is Sunday, May 31 at 406,135 km — a 14% difference in distance, and so about that much difference in apparent width. The nearer one is what gets called a supermoon.
Moon times for Anchorage are computed from the full Meeus lunar theory — the complete 47.A and 47.B periodic tables — at the city's latitude (61.2181°) and longitude (-149.9003°), then converted to local time in the America/Anchorage timezone. Rise and set are found by sampling the moon's altitude across the day and bisecting each horizon crossing, because the moon moves about 13° a day and no single position describes it. Against US Naval Observatory tables the result agrees to the displayed minute.
Why moonrise has no fixed time. The moon travels eastward against the stars as it orbits, so the Earth has to turn a little further each day to bring it back to the horizon — about 50 minutes further. That is why a page of moon times for Anchorage cannot be written down the way sunrise times can: the cycle is 29.5 days long and does not fit the calendar. Roughly once a month a date in Anchorage has no moonrise at all, or no moonset, simply because the event slid past midnight. The calculator says so in words rather than leaving a blank.
The 18.6-year cycle. Moonrise in Anchorage is not a fixed direction. Over the moon's 18.6-year cycle the rise point sweeps 174° of horizon, from 6° N at its northernmost to 180° S at its southernmost. That is 62° wider than the sun ever manages from Anchorage, whose rise point is confined to 112° between the solstices — the moon's orbit is tilted a further 5.1° to the ecliptic, so it overshoots the sun's limits in both directions. What bounds that sweep at 61.2°N is the horizon rather than the moon's orbit: push the moon's declination past the end of the arc and it stops rising on those dates altogether, so the rise point reaches the compass limit and goes no further.
The moon's highest culmination over Anchorage reaches 58°, while at the other end it climbs no higher than 0°. Everything the moon does over Anchorage happens between those two figures, and neither of them shifts — they follow from the city's latitude and the tilt of the moon's orbit, not from the calendar.
What time does the moon rise in Anchorage tonight?
Tonight's moonrise, moonset and highest point for Anchorage are at the top of this page, computed in your browser for America/Anchorage. There is no single answer to keep on file: the moon rises roughly 50 minutes later each day, so tonight's time is about 50 minutes later than last night's and the whole cycle repeats only every 29.5 days — which is why this page's fixed reference is the geometry of Anchorage's horizon rather than a table of times.
When is the next full moon in Anchorage?
All 13 full moons of 2026 are listed above in Anchorage local time, from Saturday, January 3 to Wednesday, December 23. The panel at the top of the page shows the next one counting from today. A full moon is a single instant worldwide — the moment the moon is opposite the sun — so it lands at a different clock time in every timezone, and occasionally on a different calendar date.
How high does the moon get in Anchorage?
Between about 0° and 58° above the horizon at its highest point of the night. The wide spread is the moon's own doing: its orbit is tilted 5.1° to the ecliptic and the tilt swings around over 18.6 years, so the moon reaches both higher and lower over Anchorage than the sun ever does.
Does the moon ever stay up all day in Anchorage?
Not quite. Anchorage is 0.2° of latitude short of the 61.4° line — about 20 km — so the moon always clears the horizon eventually. It does go the other way: at the far end of its swing the moon can stay below the horizon in Anchorage for a whole date, which is why a date with no moonrise at all is ordinary here.