Countdown to
The Next Full Moon
The Moon is full when it sits opposite the Sun in our sky.
Today is the Full Moon.
22 days until the Next Full Moon, on Tuesday, November 24, 2026.
The Next Full Moon is Tuesday, November 24, 2026. Happens at every full Moon, about every 29.5 days (computed astronomically, in UT).
The full moon is the point in the lunar month when the Moon sits directly opposite the Sun in our sky and its face is fully lit. It happens roughly once every 29.53 days — the synodic month — which is why it lands on a slightly different calendar date each time rather than repeating on a fixed day.
How we get this date. The countdown above is not looked up from a table — it is computed from the Moon’s orbital phase using the method in Jean Meeus’s Astronomical Algorithms (Chapter 49), the standard reference for this calculation, accurate to within a few minutes. That is why the page stays correct on its own: the moment one full moon passes, it resolves forward to the next. For how we calculate this, see How we calculate every date.
A timezone note that trips people up. The full moon is a single instant in Universal Time, not a whole day. Depending on where you are, that instant can fall on what your local calendar calls the day before or the day after the UT date. If a printed calendar and this page disagree by a day, that is almost always the reason.
🌕 Fun facts about the Next Full Moon
- The synodic month — new moon to new moon — averages 29.53 days, which is why the full moon lands on a slightly different calendar date each month.
- A full moon is the instant the Moon is exactly 180° from the Sun in ecliptic longitude; it is "full" for only a moment, though it looks full for a day or two either side.
- Because that instant is a single moment in Universal Time, the same full moon can fall on different calendar dates depending on your timezone.
- When two full moons land in one calendar month, the second is popularly called a "blue moon."
Upcoming Full Moon dates
| Date | Days away |
|---|---|
| 22 days | |
| 52 days | |
| 81 days | |
| 110 days | |
| 140 days |
Frequently asked
When is the next full moon?
The countdown above shows the exact date, computed from the Moon's phase in Universal Time (UT). Because the full moon is a single UT instant, it may land on the previous or next calendar day in your local timezone.
Why does the full moon fall on a different date each month?
The Moon completes a full cycle of phases every 29.53 days on average (the synodic month). That is a little shorter than the average calendar month, so the full moon lands about a day earlier each month and drifts through the calendar rather than repeating on a fixed date.
How is the full moon date calculated?
We compute it directly from the Moon's orbital phase using the algorithm in Jean Meeus's "Astronomical Algorithms" (Chapter 49), accurate to a few minutes.
What are the names of the full moons?
Each month's full moon has traditional names — the Wolf Moon (January), Snow Moon (February), Worm Moon (March), and so on through the Buck Moon (July), Harvest Moon, and Cold Moon (December).