Moon Phase Calendar: Every Full and New Moon

The Moon goes from new to full and back in about 29.5 days: new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter, each about a week apart. This calendar gives each phase to the minute in your own time zone, from the U.S. Naval Observatory’s data, with each full moon’s name and the dark nights around the new moon.

How to use it

Type your town (or “lat, lon”, or use your location), then pick a month, or “The whole year” for a table of all twelve months. The month view is a calendar: every day’s moon, the exact phase days with their times, and the dark nights marked with a star, when there are 4 hours or more of full darkness with the Moon down. The answer names the month’s full moon and says when it is, in your time zone. Print the calendar to keep it on the fridge. The link keeps your place and month; your own location never goes into it.

What a phase is, and why your time zone matters

A phase is an instant, not a day. The U.S. Naval Observatory: “Technically, the phases New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon, and Last Quarter are defined to occur when the excess of the apparent ecliptic (celestial) longitude of the Moon over that of the Sun is 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees, respectively.” Its tables are in Universal Time (“In the output table, the date indicates the day, hour, minute, respectively, of Universal Time.”), so a full moon late in the evening in Los Angeles is already the next day in London. This page turns every phase into your place’s own time zone, daylight saving included, before it puts it on a day. The cycle itself: “Following waning crescent is New Moon, beginning a repetition of the complete phase cycle of 29.5 days average duration.”

The full moons of 2027, Eastern Time

Twelve full moons and no Blue Moon in 2027. For another place or year, choose it above.

The full moon names

The names in common use, month by month, are the Old Farmer’s Almanac’s list: Wolf Moon (January), Snow Moon (February), Worm Moon (March), Pink Moon (April), Flower Moon (May), Strawberry Moon (June), Buck Moon (July), Sturgeon Moon (August), Corn Moon (September), Hunter’s Moon (October), Beaver Moon (November) and Cold Moon (December). One name moves: “The Harvest Moon is the Full Moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox.” That is usually September’s, but in 2028 it is October’s (October 3), because the equinox falls on September 22, 18½ days after the September full moon and 11 days before the October one. The page uses the Naval Observatory’s own equinox times to decide it.

Blue Moons

The Naval Observatory: “When there are two Full Moons in a month (which occurs, on average, every 2.7 years), the second one is called a “Blue Moon”.” Because a month is a local thing, a Blue Moon can be one in New York and none in Tokyo: the full moon of December 31, 2028 falls on January 1 in Japan. The calendar checks the months in your own time zone. The next ones in New York: May 31, 2026 and December 31, 2028.

Worked examples

• A camping trip with dark skies. New York City, October 2026: the new moon is October 10, and the 16 nights from October 4 to 19 have 4 hours or more of darkness with the Moon down. Plan the trip for that week, and check the clouds with the Stargazing Planner.
• A full-moon hike. The Hunter’s Moon of October 2026 is full on October 26 in New York; the nights just before and after are nearly as bright, with the Moon rising around sunset.
• Bioluminescence. The glow shows best on moonless nights: the Florida Bioluminescence Planner ranks Florida’s paddling spots by the same darkness.

Common mistakes

• Reading a full moon date in another time zone. A list in Universal Time can put the full moon a day off where you are. This calendar never does.
• Calling the night before the full moon the full moon. The Moon looks full for two or three nights; the full moon itself is one instant, given here to the minute.
• Planning stargazing for the full moon. Moonlight hides the faint stars and the Milky Way: the dark nights are the ones around the new moon.

Under dark skies

Where the stars are best: the dark sky parks of the US and the darkest skies on Earth; which states can see the Milky Way and where to see it in Florida. On the water: can you see bioluminescence from the beach in Florida?