When Is the Next Full Moon

What is a full moon, and when is the next one?

A full moon happens when the Moon is directly opposite the Sun as seen from Earth: the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up in that order, and the entire Earth-facing side of the Moon is lit. This happens once per lunar cycle, roughly every 29.53 days, which is why full moons fall on different calendar dates each year and why some years, like 2026, get 13 full moons instead of the usual 12. The extra one is the May 31, 2026, Blue Moon, the second full moon in a single calendar month.

The tool at the top of this page answers the question “when is the next full moon” with a live countdown: days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the next full moon, computed from real lunar astronomy the moment the page loads. Below the countdown you get the exact date and time of the next full moon in UTC, plus a full moon calendar covering 2026 through 2030, with every full moon named, including supermoons and the lunar eclipses that fall on full moons. You can also type in any date to find the next full moon after it, so a birthday, a trip, or a planned photo shoot is one input away from its answer.

The next full moon after October 17, 2026, is the Hunter’s Moon on October 26, 2026, at 04:12 UTC (12:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time on October 26). After that comes the Beaver Moon on November 24, 2026, which is a supermoon, and the Cold Moon on December 23, 2026, at 8:28 PM Eastern Time, also a supermoon. The countdown above tracks the Hunter’s Moon right now; once it passes, it rolls automatically to the Beaver Moon.

People look up the next full moon for plenty of practical reasons. Photographers plan night shoots and moonrise shots weeks ahead, because a full moon rises around sunset and stays up all night. Astrology students watch the full moon as the culmination point of the lunar cycle, the traditional counterpart to the new moon’s new beginnings. Outdoor planners, anglers, and casual stargazers just want to know which night the sky will be brightest. Whatever your reason, a computed countdown beats a remembered date: the tool rechecks the astronomy on every load.

How to use the next full moon tool

1. Read the countdown. The live countdown at the top ticks down to the next full moon in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. It is computed when the page loads, so it is always current.
2. Note the exact time. Below the countdown you get the full moon’s exact date and time in UTC, its traditional name, and whether it is a supermoon or an eclipse moon. Convert UTC to your local time before planning.
3. Browse the calendar. The full moon calendar from 2026 to 2030 lists every full moon with its date, name, and special events, so you can scan ahead for the next supermoon or the next eclipse.
4. Pick your own date. Enter any date in the past or future to find the next full moon after it. This is the fastest way to answer “when was the full moon nearest my birthday” or “when is the first full moon of 2028.”
5. Check supermoon and eclipse flags. Supermoons are full moons near perigee, the Moon’s closest point to Earth, when the Moon looks slightly larger and brighter. Eclipse flags mark the full moons where Earth’s shadow crosses the Moon: a total lunar eclipse on March 3, 2026, and a partial lunar eclipse on August 28, 2026.
6. Copy your result. The copy function takes the countdown result, exact time, and moon name as plain text for your notes, calendar, or shoot planning.

How it works

There is no full moon table behind this tool. Every date it shows is computed from the same kind of math astronomers use for approximate planetary positions.

The single quantity that decides a full moon is the elongation: the angular separation between the Moon and the Sun as seen from Earth. At full moon the elongation is 180 degrees, because the Moon sits opposite the Sun. The tool computes the geocentric ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and the Moon from low-precision Keplerian orbital elements, solves Kepler’s equation by iteration, adds the standard lunar perturbation corrections, and subtracts the longitudes to get the elongation. This is Paul Schlyter’s well-known method for computing planetary positions (https://stjarnhimlen.se/comp/ppcomp.html), and background on the phase geometry is covered at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase.

To find the next full moon, the tool starts from your reference date and scans forward in time until the elongation crosses 180 degrees, then bisects on the elongation angle until the crossing time is pinned down to about 1-minute precision. The countdown then simply counts down to that instant. The same bisection finds every full moon in the 2026 to 2030 calendar, which is why the published times carry minute-level precision instead of rounded days.

The traditional moon names in the calendar, Wolf Moon for January, Snow Moon for February, Worm Moon for March, Pink Moon for April, Flower Moon for May, Strawberry Moon for June, Buck Moon for July, Sturgeon Moon for August, Corn Moon and Harvest Moon for September, Hunter’s Moon for October, Beaver Moon for November, and Cold Moon for December, come from the widely used North American folk tradition, popularized by the Maine Farmer’s Almanac from Native American and colonial naming customs. The names were practical labels for the seasons: the Hunter’s Moon marked the time to hunt and store meat before winter, the Beaver Moon the time to set traps before the swamps froze, and the Worm Moon the thaw when earthworms returned. The Harvest Moon is the one full moon with a true astronomical definition: the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, which is why September gets both a Corn Moon and the Harvest Moon title in 2026.

It helps to understand what the countdown is actually measuring. The synodic month of 29.53 days is not the Moon’s orbital period around Earth, which is 27.32 days. The extra two days come from the fact that the Earth has moved along its own orbit around the Sun while the Moon was circling, so the Moon must travel a little farther to line up opposite the Sun again. This is why the full moon drifts across the calendar and why the bisection method is needed: the elongation changes smoothly but not uniformly, so the tool steps forward day by day from your reference date until the elongation first exceeds 180 degrees, then narrows in on the exact crossing. The Blue Moon on May 31, 2026, is a calendar accident of this drift: May’s first full moon falls on May 1, and 29.53 days later lands a second full moon inside the same month, which is exactly how often the popular definition of a Blue Moon is satisfied.

September’s full moon is the Harvest Moon whenever it falls closest to the autumn equinox, which in 2026 is September 26. A supermoon is a full moon within about 90 percent of perigee, the Moon’s closest approach to Earth, making it look up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than a full moon at apogee, its farthest point. The November 24, 2026, Beaver Moon and the December 23, 2026, Cold Moon are both supermoons.

Two honest limits apply. First, the instants are computed, not copied from an almanac, and agree with published values to within a few minutes. That is plenty for photography, planning, and astrology, but for second-level precision use a professional ephemeris. Second, all times are in UTC: the Hunter’s Moon at 04:12 UTC on October 26 is 12:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time, so convert to your own timezone before setting an alarm.

Worked example

Here is a worked example so you can see exactly what the tool computes. Open the tool above with the reference date set to October 17, 2026.

The countdown reads about 9 days to the next full moon: the Hunter’s Moon on October 26, 2026, at 04:12 UTC (12:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time). The bisection on the elongation pins the 180-degree crossing to minute precision, and the countdown ticks down from roughly 9 days, 8 hours at midnight UTC on October 17. This is a plain full moon, not a supermoon and not an eclipse.

Now scan the calendar to November 2026. The next full moon after the Hunter’s Moon is the Beaver Moon on November 24, 2026, and it is flagged as a supermoon: it falls near perigee, so the Moon appears noticeably larger and brighter than average. December brings the Cold Moon on December 23, 2026, at 8:28 PM Eastern Time, also a supermoon. Back in the spring, the calendar shows the Worm Moon on March 3, 2026 with a total lunar eclipse flag, and the Sturgeon Moon on August 28, 2026 with a partial lunar eclipse flag. All of these dates come from the same elongation engine; none are copied from a table.

The full 2026 list reads: January 3 (Wolf), February 1 (Snow), March 3 (Worm, total lunar eclipse), April 1 (Pink), May 1 (Flower), May 31 (Blue Moon), June 29 (Strawberry), July 29 (Buck), August 28 (Sturgeon, partial lunar eclipse), September 26 (Corn, Harvest Moon), October 26 (Hunter’s), November 24 (Beaver, supermoon), and December 23 (Cold Moon, supermoon). Thirteen full moons in one year, each found by the same bisection.

Frequently asked questions

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon after October 17, 2026, is the Hunter’s Moon on October 26, 2026, at 04:12 UTC, which is 12:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time on October 26. The countdown at the top of this page ticks down to it live. Once it passes, the tool rolls automatically to the next one: the Beaver Moon on November 24, 2026, which is a supermoon.

What are the full moon dates for 2026?

The 2026 full moons are: January 3 (Wolf), February 1 (Snow), March 3 (Worm, total lunar eclipse), April 1 (Pink), May 1 (Flower), May 31 (Blue Moon), June 29 (Strawberry), July 29 (Buck), August 28 (Sturgeon, partial lunar eclipse), September 26 (Corn, Harvest Moon), October 26 (Hunter’s), November 24 (Beaver, supermoon), and December 23 (Cold Moon, supermoon). There are 13 full moons in 2026 because May gets two of them, making the May 31 moon a Blue Moon.

How far apart are full moons?

Full moons are about 29.53 days apart, the length of one synodic month: the time it takes the Moon to return to the same position relative to the Sun. Because 29.53 days does not divide evenly into calendar months, the full moon date drifts by a day or two each month, and roughly every two and a half years a calendar month gets two full moons, producing a Blue Moon like the one on May 31, 2026.

What is a supermoon and which 2026 full moons are supermoons?

A supermoon is a full moon that occurs near perigee, the Moon’s closest approach to Earth, making it look up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than a full moon at apogee, its farthest point. In 2026 the November 24 Beaver Moon and the December 23 Cold Moon, at 8:28 PM Eastern Time, are both supermoons. The full moon calendar above flags supermoons so you can plan for the brightest nights.

When are the 2026 lunar eclipses?

A lunar eclipse can only happen at a full moon, when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon and its shadow crosses the lunar disk. In 2026 there are two: a total lunar eclipse on the Worm Moon of March 3, 2026, and a partial lunar eclipse on the Sturgeon Moon of August 28, 2026. The calendar above marks both with eclipse flags.

Is this next full moon tool free? Do I need an account?

Yes, it is completely free, and no account or signup is needed. The countdown and the full moon calendar are computed entirely in your browser from real lunar astronomy: nothing is sent to a server, nothing is stored, and the countdown recomputes on every page load. Use the copy function to take any result as plain text for your notes or shoot planning.

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About the author

This next full moon tool was built by the ZodiaScope editorial team. We publish astronomy-accurate astrology tools: every countdown and calendar date on this page is computed live from orbital mechanics, not looked up in a table, and the method is documented so the results can be checked. Our interpretations follow traditional astrology and are offered for reflection and entertainment.

Published: October 17, 2026. Last updated: October 17, 2026.