Moon Phase Sagamihara

Moon Phase Sagamihara: New Moon

On Saturday, October 10, 2026, the moon in Sagamihara is a New Moon with 0% illumination. Moon age: 29.0 days.

Illumination
0%
Moon Age
29.0d
Next Full Moon
Oct 26
Distance
--
☽ Moonrise
5:10 AM
↑ Highest
—
☾ Moonset
4:53 PM

Sagamihara, Japan-moon-phase-today-calculator

☽ Best Places to View the Moon in Sagamihara, Japan

Sagamihara sits at roughly 35.57°N in Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area, with around 712,000 residents. Flatland along the Sagami River gives way to the Tanzawa Mountains in the west, and the city is home to a major centre of Japanese space research — JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science runs its main campus here, working on missions that have brought fragments of distant asteroids back to Earth. Between that campus, a mountain-ringed reservoir, and a real waterfall inside the city limits, Sagamihara gives an unusually direct route from looking at the real moon to studying the science of the solar system it belongs to.

1

JAXA Sagamihara Campus & Sagamihara City Museum

A free visitor facility at JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, normally open 10:00–17:00 with last admission at 16:45. Exhibits include full-scale M-V and M-3SII rocket models, spacecraft and satellite displays, and a Hayabusa2/Ryugu touchdown interactive experience — check the current annual calendar for closure days. The adjoining city museum, closely tied to the campus, has hosted exhibitions of Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 material and runs a planetarium; check its current programme if you want to combine a show with your visit.

2

Lake Sagami (Sagamiko)

An artificial reservoir formed by damming the Sagami River, ringed by mountains and hot spring inns. Its open water gives a wide sightline framed by the surrounding hills.

3

Sagami River

The river running through the city's western and northern areas, part of the lower course of the Katsura River system with headwaters in the Yamanashi/Fuji-area mountains. Its trails and riverside parks give an easy, low-key option for an ordinary evening.

4

Sagamihara-Asamizo Park

One of the city's larger parks, giving open lawns and walking paths away from the busier station districts, useful for an evening without much planning.

5

Ebirasawa Waterfall

A forested waterfall in Sagamihara's mountainous western area, part of the Aone natural landscape in Green Ward. Its setting is a sharp contrast to the flatter, more urbanized eastern districts.

6

Lake Tsukui & Shiroyama Park

A quieter western Sagamihara landscape combining reservoir water with the wooded slopes of Shiroyama. The surrounding prefectural park and hiking routes give elevated views over the lake and countryside, with the Shiroyama summit reportedly extending toward central Tokyo on clear days — check trail access and conditions before a nighttime visit.

◉ Best Times for Moon Photography

🌕 Full Moon ±1 day — Lake Sagami and the Sagami River both give an open sightline framed by mountains or riverside greenery
❄ Dec–Feb — cool winters typical of inland Kanagawa, colder in the western hills than the eastern flatland
🌙 Mar–May & Oct–Nov — comfortable evenings for a walk along the Sagami River or around Sagamihara-Asamizo Park
☀ Jun–Sep — warm, humid evenings, with a rainy season in June and typhoon risk from summer into early autumn
🥶 Winters are generally mild in the eastern flatland; the mountainous west runs colder, given the city's elevation range from around 36m to over 1,600m

📷 Quick Photography Tips

🎯A tripod helps at open spots like Lake Sagami and the Sagami riverside, more exposed to wind than the streets of the centre
🚀Check current JAXA campus and museum hours if you want to combine the exhibits with your evening — both keep daytime schedules
🌲Ebirasawa Waterfall's forested setting gives a genuinely quiet, tree-covered option away from the flatter, more built-up eastern wards
🔋Humidity can affect lenses in summer — carry a cloth and let gear acclimate before shooting if you've come from an air-conditioned space
🕐 Timezone

Sagamihara runs on Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) year-round — Japan does not observe daylight saving time, so the offset from UTC stays the same in every season.

🌐 Other Locations

For the moon phase in any other city worldwide, visit our Dynamic Moon Phase Calculator for instant lunar data tailored to wherever you are.

Enjoy the moon over Sagamihara — a city where a major centre of Japanese space research sits a short bus ride from the mountains and rivers you'll be watching it from.

The moon phase today in Sagamihara, Japan is shown in detail above — complete with exact illumination percentage, moonrise/set times, and the best viewpoints to see it. For the moon phase today in any other city or location worldwide, visit our Dynamic Moon Phase Calculator on the home page.

◐ While Actually There

Sagamihara's connection to the sky is about as literal as any city on this site gets. JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science runs deep-space missions from its Sagamihara campus, and two of them — the Hayabusa probes — actually flew to asteroids and brought pieces of them back to Earth. The city museum next door has hosted exhibitions built around that same material, and its planetarium is worth checking as part of the same visit. It's a satisfying loop: spend the day with the science of the solar system, then step outside in the evening and look at a small piece of it directly.

The rest of the city runs on a gentler, more geographic logic. The Sagami River cuts through the flatland in the city's western and northern areas, while the western hills rise into the Tanzawa range, feeding reservoirs created by dams, including Lake Sagami and Lake Tsukui, along the way. Ebirasawa Waterfall, tucked into those same hills, is the city's quiet answer to all the space-age hardware on the other side of town.

JAXA and the city museum are best treated as daytime stops given their hours, but the river, the parks, and the lakes are all straightforward for an ordinary evening without much advance planning.

"Sagamihara studies asteroids by day and looks at the real moon by night — and the same short bus ride covers both."

✓ Your Sagamihara Moon Chase Checklist

Before You Go

  • Check the moonrise time and phase on this page for each night of your stay
  • Check JAXA's current annual closure calendar before visiting — hours are normally 10:00–17:00 with last admission at 16:45
  • Check current Sagamihara City Museum and planetarium showtimes if you want to combine a show with your visit
  • Check access and trail conditions before visiting Ebirasawa Waterfall or the Lake Tsukui–Shiroyama route, since both sit in the more remote western hills
  • Check the forecast for typhoon activity if visiting in late summer or early autumn

What to Bring

  • A warm layer for winter evenings, especially if venturing into the western hills near Tanzawa, which run colder than the eastern flatland
  • A tripod, useful at open spots like Lake Sagami and the Sagami riverside
  • Comfortable shoes for the trails around Ebirasawa Waterfall and the western lakes
  • A light rain layer, especially during the June rainy season
  • Spare camera batteries and a lens cloth for humid summer evenings

On the Night

  • Arrive 20–30 minutes before moonrise at open spots like Lake Sagami or the Sagami riverside
  • Shoot RAW and bracket exposures, especially where reservoir water or riverside lighting mix with moonlight
  • Keep to marked trails around Ebirasawa Waterfall and the western hills after dark
  • Confirm your return transport if visiting Lake Sagami, Lake Tsukui, or the waterfall in the evening
  • Watch for typhoon-related weather changes if visiting between summer and early autumn
JAXA's exhibit hours, the city museum's planetarium schedule, and access to Ebirasawa Waterfall or the Shiroyama trails can all change — check current details before building an evening around any of them.
The moon over Sagamihara shares the sky with the same space agency that's brought pieces of actual asteroids back to Earth, a mountain-ringed reservoir, and a waterfall tucked into the western hills. Use the phase calendar on this page, check JAXA and museum hours before you go, and let a city built around space research show you the real thing at night.

? Sagamihara Moon Phase — Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is the moon phase today in Sagamihara?

The moon phase today in Sagamihara is a New Moon with 0% illumination. The next full moon is in 17 days, on Oct 26. Moonrise is at 5:10 AM and moonset at 4:52 PM.

Q. Where is the best place to view the moon in Sagamihara?

Lake Sagami, a reservoir ringed by mountains, and the banks of the Sagami River both give open sightlines away from the densest streets. Sagamihara-Asamizo Park offers wide lawns and paths for an easy evening, though its Green Tower observation deck closes at 16:30 from April to September and 16:00 from October to March, so use it for daytime scouting. The wooded hills of Shiroyama Park by Lake Tsukui give elevated views over the lake, but check trail access and conditions before a nighttime visit, and stay on marked trails in the western hills after dark.

Q. Where does the moon rise and set in Sagamihara, and how high does it climb?

At about 35.6°N, the Moon's rising point swings between roughly east-northeast (azimuth near 54°) and east-southeast (near 126°) over a month at the widest point of its 18.6-year declination cycle, with the setting point mirrored in the west. That cycle peaked with the major lunar standstill of 2024–2025, so the monthly swing is still near its widest. At this latitude the Moon always culminates in the south, ranging from about 26° above the southern horizon at its southern extreme to about 83° at its northern extreme. A December full moon typically culminates near 78°, while a June full moon peaks near 31°.

Q. How do the Tanzawa Mountains and Mount Fuji affect moonset in Sagamihara?

The Tanzawa Mountains, whose peaks include the 1,588 m Mount Ōmuro, rise in Sagamihara's western hills and lift the west-southwest horizon roughly 3° above a flat one, so the Moon slips behind the ridge about 15 minutes before the flat-horizon moonset time. Mount Fuji lies about 62 km away at a bearing near 248° and is visible from elevated points on clear days, standing at a similar apparent height. The Moon sets in line with it when its declination is about −16° to −17°, which happens twice a month. Treat these figures as approximate, since they depend on your exact position and elevation.

Q. Where on the Moon did Japan's SLIM lander touch down, and can I see it from Sagamihara?

SLIM, developed by JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), whose main campus is in Sagamihara, touched down on 19–20 January 2024 near Shioli crater at about 13.3°S, 25.2°E, west of Mare Nectaris, landing roughly 60 m from its target. Shioli is only about 300 m across, far too small to see from Earth. The surrounding region is an easy binocular or small-telescope target, best around first quarter when the terminator crosses Mare Nectaris and craters such as Theophilus stand out in relief.

Q. Is light pollution a problem for moon observing in Sagamihara?

The Moon is bright enough to observe and photograph from almost anywhere in the city, so light pollution rarely limits the lunar disc itself. As part of the Greater Tokyo Area with around 712,000 residents, Sagamihara does wash out earthshine on a thin crescent and faint stars or planets near the Moon. Open spots such as Lake Sagami and the Sagami riverside keep buildings out of your foreground, while the western hills, farther from the densest lighting, may offer a somewhat darker setting. Sagamihara remains a light-polluted urban location rather than a dark-sky site.

Q. What camera settings work best for moon photography in Sagamihara, and how do the seasons affect conditions?

For a full moon, start with Looney 11 (f/11, ISO 100, 1/100 s) and refine using your histogram, since it is a baseline rather than a guarantee. Shoot RAW, bracket where lit foregrounds share the frame, and use a 200–400 mm lens to frame the Moon against the Tanzawa ridgeline or Fuji. Summers are humid, with a rainy season in June and typhoon risk from summer into early autumn, so let gear acclimate after air conditioning and carry a lens cloth. The western hills run colder than the eastern flatland, so pack a warm layer and spare batteries for winter evenings.

Q. Does this page work for cities besides Sagamihara?

This page is set up specifically for Sagamihara, Japan. For the moon phase in any other city or location worldwide, use the Dynamic Moon Phase Calculator on the moonphase.today home page.