Shillong, Meghalaya Moonrise & Moonset Times

Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya perched on the Shillong Plateau at 1496 metres, earns its title as the Scotland of the East with its rolling pine-covered hills, misty lakes, and a climate that keeps the air crisp enough on most evenings for the moon to appear with startling clarity. Today's moonrise is at 20:05 and moonset at 05:38. From Shillong Peak, the highest point in the state at 1966 metres, the full moon rising above the Jaintia Hills to the east illuminates the entire plateau in a blue-white wash, the pine forests below appearing as a dark, textured carpet from which the city's lights emerge like scattered embers.

Ward's Lake, a manicured garden lake in the heart of the city, captures the moon in its ornamental water between banks of azaleas and rhododendrons, and the arched wooden bridge crossing the lake frames the reflection in a postcard-perfect composition. Umiam Lake, fifteen kilometres north on the Guwahati road, stretches across a wide valley surrounded by pine-clad hills, and on windless nights its surface holds the moon with such precision that the reflection appears more vivid than the original, the dark water intensifying the silver disc against a sky already crowded with stars. During Meghalaya's dry season from November to February, the monsoon clouds that earn the state its name as the Abode of the Clouds part to reveal crystalline night skies, and the moon's passage over the Khasi Hills is unimpeded, its light strong enough to cast tree shadows that move visibly across the red-earth paths.

Tracking moonrise and moonset times helps trekkers descending to the living root bridges of Cherrapunji plan their walks for moonlit forest paths, assists the Khasi communities in observing the Ka Pom Blang Nongkrem festival according to the traditional lunar calendar, and guides anglers at Umiam Lake in timing their casts with moon-phase feeding patterns. Shillong's elevation, clean air, and abundance of water surfaces combine to give the moon a prominence that feels almost theatrical, as if the plateau were designed as a natural amphitheatre for lunar display.