Full Moon
When is the next full moon? Every full moon from November 2026 to October 2027 with the exact time in ET and UK time, its name, its sign and its meaning.
The calendar below lists every full moon from November 2026 to October 2027, with the exact moment of fullness in Eastern Time and in UK time, the folk name of each moon and the zodiac sign it falls in. It opens with the Beaver Moon on Tuesday, November 24, 2026, at 9:53 a.m. ET, and closes with the Hunter’s Moon on Friday, October 15, 2027. All twelve dates were computed with an astronomical ephemeris (PyEphem) for the America/New_York time zone and checked against the U.S. Naval Observatory’s tables.
Below the calendar you’ll find how to tell whether tonight is a full moon, why each one has a name, which full moon of the year comes closest to Earth, and what the full moon means in spiritual tradition.
When is the next full moon?
Here are the twelve full moons of the coming year. The time is the instant the Moon is exactly opposite the Sun; the Moon looks full for about a night on either side of it.
| Date | Time (ET) | Name | Moon in | UK time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Nov 24, 2026 | 9:53 AM EST | Beaver Moon | Gemini | Nov 24, 2:53 PM GMT |
| Wed, Dec 23, 2026 | 8:28 PM EST | Cold Moon | Cancer | Dec 24, 1:28 AM GMT |
| Fri, Jan 22, 2027 | 7:17 AM EST | Wolf Moon | Leo | Jan 22, 12:17 PM GMT |
| Sat, Feb 20, 2027 | 6:24 PM EST | Snow Moon | Virgo | Feb 20, 11:24 PM GMT |
| Mon, Mar 22, 2027 | 6:44 AM EDT | Worm Moon | Libra | Mar 22, 10:44 AM GMT |
| Tue, Apr 20, 2027 | 6:27 PM EDT | Pink Moon | Scorpio | Apr 20, 11:27 PM BST |
| Thu, May 20, 2027 | 6:59 AM EDT | Flower Moon | Scorpio | May 20, 11:59 AM BST |
| Fri, Jun 18, 2027 | 8:44 PM EDT | Strawberry Moon | Sagittarius | Jun 19, 1:44 AM BST |
| Sun, Jul 18, 2027 | 11:45 AM EDT | Buck Moon | Capricorn | Jul 18, 4:45 PM BST |
| Tue, Aug 17, 2027 | 3:29 AM EDT | Sturgeon Moon | Aquarius | Aug 17, 8:29 AM BST |
| Wed, Sep 15, 2027 | 7:03 PM EDT | Harvest Moon | Pisces | Sep 16, 12:03 AM BST |
| Fri, Oct 15, 2027 | 9:47 AM EDT | Hunter’s Moon | Aries | Oct 15, 2:47 PM BST |
For Central Time subtract one hour, for Mountain Time two, for Pacific Time three. Three of these full moons fall on a different calendar day in the UK than in the US: December 23 (24 in the UK), June 18 (19) and September 15 (16).
Bookmark the table: the date and the night to look up are all here for the year ahead.
Is it a full moon tonight?
The full moon is an instant, not a whole day, so the question is really “which night looks fullest?” A simple rule works well: if the full moon falls in the evening or at night, that night is the one; if it falls in the morning, the night before and the night after look almost the same, and both count.
Rise times show it clearly. A full moon rises close to sunset, because it sits opposite the Sun. Here is what that looks like in New York City on a few of the dates above:
| Full moon | Moment (ET) | Moonrise in NYC that day | Sunset in NYC that day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 24, 2026 | 9:53 AM | 4:16 PM | 4:31 PM |
| Dec 23, 2026 | 8:28 PM | 3:58 PM | 4:32 PM |
| Jan 22, 2027 | 7:17 AM | 5:25 PM | 5:01 PM |
| Jun 18, 2027 | 8:44 PM | 8:42 PM | 8:29 PM |
| Sep 15, 2027 | 7:03 PM | 6:45 PM | 7:05 PM |
On June 18, 2027, the Moon reaches fullness two minutes after it clears the horizon in New York: about as good as timing gets. On January 22, 2027, fullness comes in the morning, so the evenings of January 21 and 22 are both worth a look. Rise times change with your location by a few minutes to more than an hour, so treat the NYC column as an example rather than your local time.
For the phase on any other night, the moon phase page explains how to read the Moon’s shape and rise time yourself.
Go out on the night closest to the moment in the table; the night before or after looks nearly as full.
What is a full moon, astronomically?
A full moon happens when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, so the half of the Moon lit by the Sun faces us entirely. The Moon makes no light of its own; what you see is sunlight bouncing off its surface, as NASA’s moon phase guide explains (NASA Science, nofollow).
Full moons come back every 29.53 days on average, the length of a lunar month. That average hides some variation: between 2020 and 2035, the time from one new moon to the next ranges from 29.28 to 29.81 days, and the time from a new moon to the following full moon from 13.91 to 15.61 days. This is why full moons drift earlier in the calendar month by about a day each month, and why the date moves from year to year.
Because a lunar month is shorter than most calendar months, a month occasionally gets two full moons. None of the twelve months covered here does.
A full moon is the Moon opposite the Sun, about every 29.5 days, at a precise minute.
Why does each full moon have a name?
The names in the calendar (Wolf, Snow, Worm, Pink and so on) are folk names popularized by North American almanacs: according to NASA, the Maine Farmers’ Almanac began publishing Native American names for full moons in the 1930s. They describe what was happening in nature that month: the Strawberry Moon of June marks the berry season, the Buck Moon of July the time when deer antlers grow.
Two names follow a rule rather than a month:
- Harvest Moon: the full moon closest to the September equinox. In 2027 the equinox falls on September 23 at 2:02 a.m. ET, and the full moon of September 15 is the nearest, so it takes the name. When the closest full moon falls in October, October gets the Harvest Moon instead.
- Hunter’s Moon: the full moon after the Harvest Moon, here October 15, 2027.
The names are tradition, the dates are astronomy; this calendar gives you both.
Blue moon, supermoon and the closest full moon of the year
A blue moon has two definitions: the second full moon in a calendar month, or the third full moon in a season that has four. No month between November 2026 and October 2027 has two full moons, but spring 2027 (March 20 to June 21) has four: March 22, April 20, May 20 and June 18. By the seasonal definition, the Flower Moon of May 20, 2027 is therefore a blue moon, so if you see a “blue moon” headline for this period, that is the one it means.
The Moon’s distance from Earth changes through its orbit, which is what the word supermoon is about. It has no single official definition, so here are the plain distances instead:
| Date | Distance from Earth (center to center) | |
|---|---|---|
| Closest full moon of the period | Dec 23, 2026 (Cold Moon) | 221,667 miles (356,738 km) |
| Farthest full moon of the period | Jul 18, 2027 (Buck Moon) | 252,264 miles (405,979 km) |
The December 2026 Cold Moon is the one most likely to be called a supermoon. It is about 30,600 miles closer than the July 2027 Buck Moon and looks roughly 14% wider in the sky, a difference that is easier to measure than to see without a side-by-side photo.
December 23, 2026 brings the closest and biggest-looking full moon of the year.
Which zodiac sign is the full moon in?
In astrology the full moon always falls in the sign opposite the Sun’s sign. The calendar’s “Moon in” column gives that sign for each full moon, computed for the moment of fullness. Astrologers read the full moon in a sign as a peak for that sign’s themes: a full moon in Cancer (December 23, 2026) is associated with home and family, a full moon in Libra (March 22, 2027) with relationships and fairness, a full moon in Capricorn (July 18, 2027) with work and long-term goals.
If you follow your sign day to day, the horoscope today page explains how the Moon’s sign feeds into daily readings and gives each sign’s exact dates.
Check the sign of each full moon: tradition reads it as the theme that comes to a head that month.
What does the full moon mean spiritually?
In spiritual tradition, the full moon is a time of fullness and clarity: what was started at the new moon comes to light, and it’s a natural moment to finish, celebrate or release. Many people use it for a simple ritual:
- write down what you’ve completed or learned since the last new moon;
- note one habit, thought or object you’re ready to let go of;
- spend a few quiet minutes outside or at a window looking at the Moon.
Some readers pair the full moon with prayers to their guardian angel, or with the number that has been following them lately; the angel numbers guide has the meaning grid. None of this changes the sky, and none of it needs special tools. It’s a monthly appointment with yourself.
Use the full moon as a monthly check-in: finish, give thanks, let go of one thing.
How were these dates calculated?
Every date, time, sign and distance on this page comes from PyEphem, an astronomical library, run on October 13, 2026 for the America/New_York time zone (daylight saving time applied: EST until March 14, 2027, then EDT). Signs are tropical zodiac signs, the system Western astrology uses. Rise and set times are for New York City.
The twelve full moon times were cross-checked against the U.S. Naval Observatory’s lunar phase tables (USNO, nofollow). Eleven match to the minute; the February 20, 2027 Snow Moon differs by one minute (6:23 p.m. in the USNO table, 6:24 p.m. here), a normal rounding difference between sources.
The sky is computed, the meanings are tradition; the page keeps the two apart.
Key takeaways
- The next full moons: November 24 and December 23, 2026, then January 22, February 20, March 22, April 20, May 20, June 18, July 18, August 17, September 15 and October 15, 2027.
- A full moon is an instant; the nights on either side look nearly as full.
- The December 23, 2026 Cold Moon is the closest full moon of the period; May 20, 2027 is a seasonal blue moon.
- The Harvest Moon of 2027 is September 15, the Hunter’s Moon October 15.
- The spiritual reading of the full moon is about completion and release, a monthly moment to take stock.
Twelve dates, one per month: plenty of chances to look up.
Prepared by Vivian. Dates computed on October 13, 2026.
