Kolkata, West Bengal Moonrise & Moonset Times

Kolkata, the cultural capital of India, spreads along the eastern bank of the Hooghly River in the Gangetic Delta, where the moon rising over the flat Bengali plain casts its light across a city of colonial grandeur, bustling ghats, and serene lakes that has inspired poets and painters for centuries. Today's moonrise is at 20:12 and moonset at 06:01. From the Howrah Bridge, the cantilevered steel icon spanning the Hooghly, the moon lifts above the city skyline and its light runs along the river's broad surface in a wide, shimmering band, catching the flower boats at Mullick Ghat and the ferry boats churning the dark water into trails of silver foam.

Victoria Memorial, Kolkata's white marble monument set amid formal gardens and reflecting pools, becomes the city's most resplendent moonlit scene when the full moon bathes the domed structure in a cool, blue-white glow that turns the surrounding lawns into a pale green carpet and the ornamental lake into a dark mirror holding the dome's inverted image. The Rabindra Sarovar lake in the southern part of the city, ringed by morning walkers' paths and old rain trees, offers a quieter venue where the moon reflects in water undisturbed by boats or traffic, and the rowing clubs' boathouses cast low shadows across the embankment. During the festive season of October, Durga Puja transforms the city into an open-air gallery of illuminated pandals, and the full moon of Kojagori Lakshmi Puja on the following night brings families to rooftops and riverbanks to offer puffed rice under the Sharad Purnima moon, whose light is said to carry healing nectar.

Tracking moonrise and moonset times helps boatmen at Princep Ghat plan evening cruises past the Vidyasagar Setu bridge, assists photographers at the Mallick Ghat flower market in timing pre-dawn shoots when the setting moon and the first light mingle above mountains of marigolds, and guides visitors to the Dakshineswar Temple in catching the moonrise above the Hooghly from the bathing ghat. Kolkata's literary soul has always found meaning in the moon, from Tagore's verses to Satyajit Ray's cinematography, and the city's riverfront geography ensures that this celestial muse is never far from view, a silver companion to the creative energy that defines the City of Joy.