Chennai, Tamil Nadu Moonrise & Moonset Times

Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu and the gateway to South India, stretches along the Coromandel Coast where the Bay of Bengal's warm waters meet a flat, sandy shore, and the moon rises directly from the sea in an unobstructed arc that has guided fishermen and inspired poets for millennia. Today's moonrise is at 20:22 and moonset at 06:58. From Marina Beach, one of the world's longest urban beaches, the moon lifts above the Bay of Bengal as a deep amber sphere, its reflection immediately claiming a wide corridor of the dark ocean that narrows to a bright point at the surf line, while the Victorian-Gothic towers of the University Senate House and the Madras High Court along the beachfront catch the glow on their red-brick facades.

The Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Mylapore, its towering Dravidian gopuram carved with hundreds of painted figures, takes on a different character under moonlight as the polychrome deities dissolve into monochrome relief and the temple tank reflects the shikhara's silhouette in dark, still water. The Adyar Estuary, where the river meets the sea south of the city, creates a tidal wetland that fills and empties with the moon's gravitational pull, and on full-moon nights the exposed mudflats gleam with a wet, silver sheen while egrets and night herons stalk the shallows. During the northeast monsoon season of October to December, dramatic cloud formations occasionally frame the moon in the breaks between rain bands, and the post-monsoon period from January to March delivers the clearest skies over the Bay of Bengal.

Tracking moonrise and moonset times helps the fishing communities of Nochikuppam and Kasimedu time their catamaran launches with the lunar tidal cycle, assists Bharatanatyam dancers who traditionally perform the Alarippu invocation facing east during auspicious lunar phases, and guides visitors to Mahabalipuram in planning evening visits when the Shore Temple's granite silhouette stands against a moonlit sea. Chennai's east-facing coastline and expansive beach guarantee that the moonrise is the city's nightly main event, a spectacle of light and water that unfolds along thirteen kilometres of open shore.