Full Moon Calendar: Dates & Times by Year

Plan around the exact Full Moon

Find each full-phase instant for the year, compare Moon–Earth distances and identify a second Full Moon in a local calendar month. All thumbnails use the original NASA lunar photograph, with credit, rather than animated artwork.

Full Moon is an instant in a continuous orbit

The Moon looks nearly full across more than one evening, but the primary phase is defined at a particular calculated instant. A monthly calendar often gives only a date, which can hide that distinction. This tool provides the time as well as the date in the time zone you select. The apparent fullness changes smoothly around the event, so you do not need to stand outside at the exact second to enjoy a bright lunar disc. For observing craters near strong shadows, a quarter phase may be more useful than the full phase. Compare the surrounding dates in the Moon Calendar before choosing the sort of lunar session you want.

The same event can fall on different dates

A full-phase instant is shared worldwide, while civil dates are local. If the event occurs near midnight in one region, another region may assign it to the preceding or following date. The display defaults to UTC to give an unambiguous starting point. Choose your intended time zone before copying a date into a diary or discussing it with a local observing group. An iCalendar export stores the exact event in UTC, allowing an importing application to convert it. The selected year contains events whose displayed local date belongs to that year. This avoids silently putting an early-January local event into the preceding year’s list simply because its UTC date differs.

A monthly Blue Moon is a calendar definition

This tool labels the second Full Moon occurring within one calendar month in the selected time zone. That is the monthly Blue Moon definition. A different seasonal definition also exists, and this page does not combine the two. The label does not mean that the lunar surface turns blue, and it is not a separate orbital phase. Because calendar-month boundaries depend on time zone, the monthly classification can differ between regions for an event close to midnight. Read NASA’s Moon information for broader lunar context, and keep the definition explicit when sharing a Blue Moon date. A useful calendar explains why an event has the label rather than treating the name as a visual prediction.

Distance changes apparent size gradually

The Moon’s orbit is elliptical, so its distance from Earth changes throughout the month. The distance displayed at each full phase is a calculated geocentric distance, measured between the centres of Earth and Moon. It is not the distance from your house to the visible lunar surface. A closer Full Moon can have a larger apparent diameter than a more distant one, but the change is gradual and often less striking to the unaided eye than promotional photographs suggest. This calendar avoids assigning an unexplained supermoon threshold. If you compare distances, compare the same definition across events rather than mixing surface distance, topocentric distance and geocentric distance.

A rising Moon is not necessarily a larger Moon

The familiar impression that the Moon is enormous near the horizon is mainly a perceptual effect, often called the Moon illusion. Foreground objects and the scene can change how large it appears to you. A photograph made with a long focal-length lens can also show a large lunar disc beside distant scenery, but that composition does not prove an exceptional astronomical size. Use the calculated distance for an orbital comparison and your own observation for the visual experience. The NASA lunar photograph used here is a surface reference with schematic phase presentation, not a forecast of a horizon scene. Keep image credits and any photographic explanation attached when sharing a comparison.

Moonrise, weather and visibility are separate checks

A Full Moon calendar establishes a phase, not visibility from a particular place. The Moon can be below the horizon at the exact full-phase instant and rise later. Clouds, haze and local obstructions may prevent a view even when the geometric altitude is positive. With saved observing coordinates, the event details show the Moon’s altitude and azimuth at the instant along with the Sun’s altitude. These are useful checks, but a single instant does not describe the whole evening. Use your regular observing tool to check the hours around moonrise, and confirm that the saved coordinates refer to the site where you actually plan to watch.

Why a lunar eclipse is an additional event

A Full Moon does not automatically create a lunar eclipse. The Moon’s orbital plane is tilted, and it usually misses Earth’s darker shadow. When the alignment places it within that shadow, the result can be penumbral, partial or total. A total eclipse can make the Moon appear reddish, with a colour and brightness that vary according to atmospheric conditions. Visit the Eclipse Calendar for those calculated events and their global timing. The NASA eclipse sequence on this page shows successive photographed stages of a past eclipse; it is not a claim that several lunar discs appear together in the sky. Unlike direct solar viewing, looking at a lunar eclipse needs no solar eye protection.

Using the list for photography and dark-sky planning

A Full Moon can be an excellent photographic subject while making faint-object astronomy more difficult. Choose your objective first. For a lunar portrait, consider exposure, focus and an interesting foreground; for faint meteors or galaxies, consider dates or hours with less moonlight. The Meteor Shower Calendar adds a reproducible illumination sample near each typical peak, and the monthly lunar grid adds broader phase context. Export only the events you need and add your own practical session time rather than treating an exact phase as an appointment start. Record your time zone, location and conditions so that next year’s comparison describes comparable observations rather than just similar calendar names.

Keep the phase and the session separate

A diary entry can carry the exact full-phase instant and a second note for your practical observing session. These can occur on different local dates. A near-full evening may offer a more convenient Moon altitude or foreground arrangement than the exact event time. If you compare photographs, record focal length, crop and exposure as well as lunar distance, since camera choices can dominate apparent size in the final image. Keep any traditional lunar names separate from the calculated phase and local Blue Moon classification. That makes the list useful both for casual sky watching and for a more consistent annual photography record.