Moonrise and moonset come about fifty minutes later each day, because the moon moves a twelfth of the way round its orbit while the Earth turns once.

The moon orbits eastward about 13° a day, so the Earth must turn that much further to bring it back to the horizon — about fifty minutes, less near the autumn equinox when the moon's path lies flat to the horizon, which is the harvest moon's small delay. The drawing shows why the phase fixes the hour: the moon's place on its orbit is its place in the night.

A full moon rises near sunset; a new moon near sunrise; a first-quarter moon is high at dusk and sets around midnight.