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Sunrise, brahma muhurta and the lunar day in Philadelphia

Pennsylvania, United States · 39.95°, -75.17° · America/New York

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

Friday, November 6, 2026

Brahma muhurta

5:00 AM – 5:48 AM

Sunrise

6:36 AM

Sunset

4:54 PM

Daylight

10h 18m

Lunar day (tithi)

Trayodashi

Fortnight

Waning (krishna)

Moon

Waning crescent · 8% lit

Nakshatra

Hasta

Philadelphia's sunrise runs a few minutes ahead of New York's on the same clock because it sits slightly further west but also further south.

Philadelphia carries one of the older yoga and meditation lineages on the East Coast, with Vedanta and classical hatha teaching traditions that predate the national yoga boom of the 1990s. Its climate mirrors the broader mid-Atlantic pattern — cold, occasionally icy winters that make outdoor pre-dawn practice impractical for weeks at a stretch, and humid summers where indoor practice with good airflow is more comfortable than an unshaded courtyard. The city's dense, walkable neighborhoods mean many practitioners build a short walk into their morning routine before or after seated practice, using the walk itself as a transition between sleep and stillness rather than treating it as separate from the practice.

The next ten days in Philadelphia

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

DateBrahma muhurtaSunriseSunsetDaylightTithiMoonNakshatra
Fri, Nov 65:00 AM – 5:48 AM6:36 AM4:54 PM10h 18mTrayodashiWaning (krishna)8% · waning crescentHasta
Sat, Nov 75:01 AM – 5:49 AM6:37 AM4:53 PM10h 16mChaturdashiWaning (krishna)3% · waning crescentChitra
Sun, Nov 8Amavasya (new moon)5:02 AM – 5:50 AM6:38 AM4:52 PM10h 14mAmavasyaWaning (krishna)1% · new moonSvati
Mon, Nov 95:04 AM – 5:52 AM6:40 AM4:51 PM10h 12mPratipadaWaxing (shukla)0% · new moonVishakha
Tue, Nov 105:05 AM – 5:53 AM6:41 AM4:50 PM10h 10mDvitiyaWaxing (shukla)1% · waxing crescentAnuradha
Wed, Nov 115:06 AM – 5:54 AM6:42 AM4:49 PM10h 07mTritiyaWaxing (shukla)5% · waxing crescentJyeshtha
Thu, Nov 125:07 AM – 5:55 AM6:43 AM4:48 PM10h 05mTritiyaWaxing (shukla)9% · waxing crescentMula
Fri, Nov 135:08 AM – 5:56 AM6:44 AM4:47 PM10h 03mChaturthiWaxing (shukla)16% · waxing crescentMula
Sat, Nov 145:09 AM – 5:57 AM6:45 AM4:47 PM10h 01mPanchamiWaxing (shukla)23% · waxing crescentPurva Ashadha
Sun, Nov 155:10 AM – 5:58 AM6:46 AM4:46 PM9h 59mShashthiWaxing (shukla)31% · waxing crescentUttara Ashadha

How far the window moves across the year here

At Philadelphia's latitude of 40.0°, the June solstice brings sunrise at roughly 5:33 AM with about 15h 01m of daylight, while the December solstice brings sunrise at roughly 7:20 AM with about 9h 20m. 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 Philadelphia

+ What time is brahma muhurta in Philadelphia today?
Working back from a computed sunrise of 6:36 AM, the window runs from about 5:00 AM to 5:48 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 Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia?
At this latitude, the June solstice sunrise falls around 5:33 AM with about 15h 01m of daylight, and the December solstice sunrise around 7:20 AM with about 9h 20m. 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.