Moon crosses Cancer and Leo as daylight saving time ends

At 2 A.M. on November 1, 2026, clocks move back one hour to end daylight saving time and shift to 1 A.M. local standard time. Astronomy Magazine’s observing column for Sunday, November 1, 2026, lists the time change first and notes the shift from daylight to standard time happens that morning.

Early that morning, the Moon in its waning gibbous phase sits in Cancer to the west of the naked-eye Beehive Cluster, also called M44. The column places the Moon and the star cluster together in the pre-dawn sky as an observing target for the date.

The stars of the Beehive Cluster spread across nearly 100 arcminutes of sky, meaning a high-magnification telescope view captures only the cluster’s central regions. Astronomy Magazine says the cluster’s wide spread limits how much of it fits in a magnified eyepiece view. Lunar glare nearby may make the Beehive Cluster difficult to see without optical aid, though binoculars or a telescope finder scope should bring it into view. The source links M44 visibility on November 1 to lunar glare and recommends specific optics for spotting it.

On November 1, 2026, Mars and Jupiter stand in western Leo at the upper right of Regulus, east of the Moon, with Jupiter positioned halfway from Mars to the blue-white star. The column arranges three bright objects in Leo for pre-dawn observers on the date. East of the Moon, Mars and Jupiter shine brightly in western Leo, to the upper right of the bright star Regulus.

Last Quarter arrives for the Moon at 3:28 P.M. EST on November 1, 2026, the exact afternoon time Astronomy Magazine gives for the phase change on the date. From 40° N 90° W, the sun rises at 6:29 A.M. and sets at 4:57 P.M. local time at the fixed mid-latitude location, and the source says those times are local. Moonrise is 11:23 P.M. and moonset is 1:11 P.M. at the same reference location, and the source lists moonrise and moonset for the same reference location and notes they are local times.

At 10 P.M. local time on November 1, 2026, at 40° N 90° W, the Moon shows 47 percent illumination while in a waning crescent phase. Astronomy Magazine says illumination is measured at 10 P.M. local time from the same reference location. The publication labels the phase waning crescent.

At 5 A.M. local time on November 2, 2026, western Leo climbs more than 50 degrees above the southeast horizon, the height the column gives to frame the Moon’s movement overnight. Then the Moon sits roughly 1.5 degrees southwest of Mars and 6.3 degrees west-northwest of Jupiter, separations Astronomy Magazine lists for the November 2 morning.

Jupiter glows at magnitude minus 2.0 as the brightest light on November 2, 2026, and the planet lies halfway from the Moon to Regulus toward the lower left east. The source gives Jupiter’s brightness and position relative to the Moon and Regulus for the next morning. By that same time the next morning, the Moon will have traveled roughly 14 degrees east to approach Regulus and sit southeast of the star. Astronomy Magazine uses the shift to show how far the Moon travels through the sky in a day.

Starwalk’s night-sky guide places the Moon near Pollux alongside a Mars, Jupiter, and Regulus lineup running from October 31 to November 1, 2026, with all times in GMT. The guide arranges upcoming sky events by date in GMT and warns the local calendar date can differ by time zone. “October 31–November 1: Pollux near the Moon; Mars, Jupiter, and Regulus line up“.

Starwalk also lists a Mars, Moon, and M44 lineup for November 1 to 2, 2026, and the Moon near Mars, Jupiter, and Regulus for November 2 to 3, 2026. These conjunctions appear in the guide’s upcoming-events section for the first days of November. For the night of October 31, 2026, Starwalk lists the Moon’s phase as waning gibbous in its Sky Events Tonight section.

Starwalk’s upcoming-events list includes the Southern Taurids meteor shower main peak on November 4 to 5, 2026. The guide places the meteor-shower peak within the October 31 to November 6 observing period. It also lists the Moon near Venus and Spica for November 6 to 7, 2026, and a Four-Galaxy Challenge from November 6 to 12, 2026, as early-November observing events in the same week.

The column comes from Alison Klesman, a senior editor of Astronomy magazine with a Ph.D. in astronomy, whose work has included minor planets and supermassive black holes. The source identifies the author and lists her credentials at the article’s end.