Full moon calendar

How the full moon works

A full moon happens when the Earth sits between the Sun and the Moon, so the whole face of the Moon that we can see is lit. Because the Moon orbits the Earth roughly every 29.5 days, a full moon comes round about once a month, which is why most calendar months have exactly one. The Moon is only truly full for an instant, the moment its ecliptic longitude is exactly opposite the Sun's, but to the eye it looks full for a night either side.

The full moon is a single event that happens everywhere on Earth at the same moment, yet the calendar date can differ by a day depending on your time zone. For that reason every date on this page is given in Universal Time (UTC); if the listed time is late in the day, your local date may already be the next one. The dates here are computed from the Moon's real position with the SunCalc astronomy library rather than copied from a table, so they stay accurate year after year.

Full moon calendars by year

About the full moon names

Each month's full moon carries a traditional name, mostly from North American and European folklore recorded in old almanacs and tied to the season: the Wolf Moon in January, the Snow Moon in February, the Worm Moon in March, the Pink Moon in April, the Flower Moon in May and the Strawberry Moon in June. The second half of the year brings the Buck Moon in July, the Sturgeon Moon in August, the Harvest Moon in September, the Hunter's Moon in October, the Beaver Moon in November and the Cold Moon in December. The Harvest Moon is the one exception to the monthly rule: it is defined as the full moon nearest the September equinox, so in some years it falls in early October instead.

A blue moon is the second full moon to fall within a single calendar month, which happens roughly every two to three years. It has nothing to do with colour.

Supermoons, blue moons and the harvest moon

A supermoon is a full moon that lands near perigee, the point where the Moon is closest to Earth in its slightly oval orbit, so it looks a little larger and brighter than usual. A blue moon is the second full moon in a single calendar month and has nothing to do with colour. The harvest and hunter's moons rise only a short time later each night around the autumn equinox, giving farmers extra evening light after sunset, which is how they earned their names. None of these change the underlying 29.5-day rhythm; they are just the memorable full moons within it.

How to watch the full moon

You do not need any equipment to enjoy a full moon. It rises around sunset and sets around sunrise, so it is above the horizon all night. The most striking view is in the first hour after moonrise, when it sits low and looks huge against the landscape, an illusion of scale rather than a real change in size. For the exact moonrise and moonset where you are, open your city's moon page. If you are photographing it, the soft light just after moonrise, near the blue hour, gives the most balanced exposure between the Moon and the sky.

Frequently asked questions

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