21 October 1492
Waning Gibbous, 61% lit
Land, at two in the morning
The first sight of land in the Americas was made at about 2am by a lookout, with a waning gibbous moon roughly 60% lit rising behind the ships.
Columbus had promised a silk doublet to whoever saw it first, then claimed he had spotted a light hours earlier and kept the reward. The moonlight is the reason a night sighting was possible at all.
- Date
- 21 October 1492 12 October 1492 (Julian)
- Moon computed for
- 02:00 local time, UTC−4:58
- Phase
- Waning Gibbous
- Illuminated
- 61%
Source: Columbus's journal, as abstracted by Las Casas