Sunrise, brahma muhurta and the lunar day in Chicago

Illinois, United States · 41.88°, -87.63° · America/Chicago

Written and reviewed by The Kriya Yogi · Updated 21 September 2026

Friday, November 6, 2026

Brahma muhurta

4:54 AM – 5:42 AM

Sunrise

6:30 AM

Sunset

4:40 PM

Daylight

10h 10m

Lunar day (tithi)

Trayodashi

Fortnight

Waning (krishna)

Moon

Waning crescent · 8% lit

Nakshatra

Hasta

At nearly 42° north, Chicago has one of the widest summer-to-winter sunrise spreads of any large American city, which makes a sunrise-anchored routine noticeably different from a clock-anchored one.

Chicago's yoga community grew up alongside a strong midwestern fitness culture, and its winters are a real test of any sunrise-anchored practice: by December the pre-dawn window falls in serious cold, and lake-effect weather off Lake Michigan can add wind chill that makes a slow warm-up before seated work genuinely necessary rather than optional. Summer swings the other way, with long bright evenings and early dawns that make outdoor practice by the lakefront a popular seasonal habit among practitioners who spend the rest of the year training indoors. Because the swing between the two seasons is so large here, many Chicago teachers build two versions of a home routine — one for the short, dark months and one for the long, bright ones — rather than trying to force a single fixed schedule across the whole year.

The next ten days in Chicago

Times are local to Chicago and recalculated every time this page loads. The lunar day shown is the one in force at local sunrise.

Date	Brahma muhurta	Sunrise	Sunset	Daylight	Tithi	Moon	Nakshatra
Fri, Nov 6	4:54 AM – 5:42 AM	6:30 AM	4:40 PM	10h 10m	TrayodashiWaning (krishna)	8% · waning crescent	Hasta
Sat, Nov 7	4:55 AM – 5:43 AM	6:31 AM	4:39 PM	10h 08m	ChaturdashiWaning (krishna)	3% · waning crescent	Chitra
Sun, Nov 8Amavasya (new moon)	4:56 AM – 5:44 AM	6:32 AM	4:38 PM	10h 06m	AmavasyaWaning (krishna)	1% · new moon	Svati
Mon, Nov 9	4:57 AM – 5:45 AM	6:33 AM	4:37 PM	10h 03m	PratipadaWaxing (shukla)	0% · new moon	Vishakha
Tue, Nov 10	4:59 AM – 5:47 AM	6:35 AM	4:36 PM	10h 01m	DvitiyaWaxing (shukla)	1% · waxing crescent	Anuradha
Wed, Nov 11	5:00 AM – 5:48 AM	6:36 AM	4:35 PM	9h 59m	TritiyaWaxing (shukla)	5% · waxing crescent	Jyeshtha
Thu, Nov 12	5:01 AM – 5:49 AM	6:37 AM	4:34 PM	9h 57m	TritiyaWaxing (shukla)	10% · waxing crescent	Mula
Fri, Nov 13	5:02 AM – 5:50 AM	6:38 AM	4:33 PM	9h 54m	ChaturthiWaxing (shukla)	16% · waxing crescent	Purva Ashadha
Sat, Nov 14	5:04 AM – 5:52 AM	6:40 AM	4:32 PM	9h 52m	PanchamiWaxing (shukla)	23% · waxing crescent	Purva Ashadha
Sun, Nov 15	5:05 AM – 5:53 AM	6:41 AM	4:31 PM	9h 50m	ShashthiWaxing (shukla)	32% · waxing crescent	Uttara Ashadha

How far the window moves across the year here

At Chicago's latitude of 41.9°, the June solstice brings sunrise at roughly 5:16 AM with about 15h 14m of daylight, while the December solstice brings sunrise at roughly 7:16 AM with about 9h 08m. Both figures are computed for this location, not averaged from anywhere else. If the pre-dawn window is out of reach in one half of the year, the tradition's own priority applies: Patanjali's guidance (Yoga Sutras 1.14) is that practice takes hold through long, uninterrupted, earnest attention — consistency first, ideal hour second.

In practice, most people who keep an early routine here do not chase the brahma muhurta window exactly on the days when it falls hardest against their sleep or their working hours. A workable pattern is to pick a fixed clock time that lands inside the window for most of the year, adjust it by a season if the drift becomes extreme, and treat the days it falls slightly outside the ideal 96-to-48-minute band as still worthwhile rather than wasted — the texts describe brahma muhurta as favorable, not as the only valid hour. Seated meditation, pranayama and a short asana warm-up all transfer reasonably well between a strict pre-dawn slot and a slightly later one; what tends to break a habit is not timing drift but skipping the day entirely because the ideal moment has already passed.

Practice timing in Chicago

+ What time is brahma muhurta in Chicago today?

Working back from a computed sunrise of 6:30 AM, the window runs from about 4:54 AM to 5:42 AM local time — 96 to 48 minutes before sunrise. It moves every day with the Sun, so check the table rather than fixing it in your head.

+ Which lunar day is it in Chicago today?

At local sunrise it is Trayodashi, in the waning (krishna) fortnight, with the Moon about 8% illuminated in Hasta. Tithis run between roughly 19 and 26 hours, so a single date can straddle two; the label here is the one in force at sunrise, which is the usual convention.

+ How much does sunrise move across the year in Chicago?

At this latitude, the June solstice sunrise falls around 5:16 AM with about 15h 14m of daylight, and the December solstice sunrise around 7:16 AM with about 9h 08m. That spread is exactly why a sunrise-anchored routine and a clock-anchored one diverge.

+ Are these times exact?

Sunrise and sunset are computed for a sea-level horizon and should be within a minute or two of an observatory table; hills, buildings and altitude shift what you actually see. Tithi and nakshatra use truncated lunar series, so near a boundary a full panchanga may label the day differently. Nothing here is intended for ritual muhurta determination.

Method

Sunrise, solar noon and sunset: the standard sunrise equation, using the −0.833° altitude convention for the apparent upper limb and refraction at a sea-level horizon.
Lunar day and nakshatra: solar and lunar ecliptic longitudes from truncated Meeus series (Jean Meeus, "Astronomical Algorithms"), with tithi as 12° steps of elongation and nakshatra as 13°20′ steps of sidereal longitude under a linear Lahiri-style ayanamsa approximation.
Brahma muhurta: the 48-minute muhurta ending one muhurta before sunrise. Conventions vary between teachers; this is the most common arithmetic definition.
Not for ritual muhurta determination — for that, use a panchanga computed within your own tradition.

Timing guidance on this page is traditional and practical, not medical. Nothing here is a religious ruling or a substitute for a panchanga from your own lineage.