Qibla direction in Edison

How to face the Qibla in Edison

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 31.8° towards north: the result is the bearing of 58.2°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “east” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Edison.

Facing the Qibla is a condition of the prayer. Whoever prays inside the Sacred Mosque faces the Kaaba itself; whoever is far away, as in Edison, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its prayer rows were aligned when it was built. Once you know the direction at home, a discreet mark on the wall saves you from checking again.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Edison to Mecca points to 101.1° (east), a full 42.9° away from the true Qibla of 58.2° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 664 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Edison first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 58.2° obtained? From the coordinates of Edison (40.5187° N, 74.4121° W) and of the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E), spherical trigonometry gives the starting bearing of the great circle joining them. Mosque architects and astronomical Qibla tables rely on exactly the same calculation.

Distance from Edison to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 10,347 km from Edison as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 10,088 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 12 h 40 min, although most pilgrims from Edison connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Edison run 8 hours behind Mecca in winter and 7 hours behind Mecca in summer, because of daylight saving time. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Edison rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Edison

From Edison the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 58.2°, so you cannot simply face the sun. The opposite method works instead, as the right-hand column of the table shows.

On 318 days the sun stands exactly opposite the Qibla: then the shadow of any vertical object, a pole, a door frame or a plumb line, points straight towards Mecca. This is most frequent in March (31 days), for instance on 15 January 2027 at 16:29.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Edison (05:18 and 05:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 16:29 and 28 November 2027 at 16:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Edison points straight to Mecca.

Edison compared with other cities

Compared with Washington D.C., 288 km away, the Qibla in Edison is turned 1.7° further clockwise (58.2° against 56.6°), and Mecca is 286 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Staten Island (24 km), prays towards 58.4°, a difference of 0.2°.

Across the 244 cities in the United States on this site, the Qibla ranges from 17.2° in Hillsboro to 350.9° in Anchorage, a spread of 333.7°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for United States.

Qibla in cities near Edison

• Staten Island58.4° · 24 km
• New York58.5° · 41 km
• Paterson58.4° · 49 km
• The Bronx58.6° · 59 km
• Philadelphia57.7° · 90 km
• Allentown57.5° · 92 km