Discover the 2024 full moon dates and their unique names, from the Wolf Moon in January to the Cold Moon in December. Explore lunar phases, names across cultures, and tips for moon-watching and photography.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
Email | Call (888) 600-8654
Have a quick question? I answered nearly 1500 FAQs.
The upcoming full moon is scheduled for 25th March, Monday, at 3:00 a.m. EST (0700 GMT). However, the uninitiated stargazer will still see a full moon during the night prior to and following its peak.
As per the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the full moon in March is also called the Worm Moon, which is believed to be associated with the appearance of earthworms.
Approximately once per month, the full moon illuminates Earth. Well, in a sense.
A full moon is rarely perfectly full. We constantly see a single face of the moon, yet because of its rotation, a portion of it is hidden from view. The moon is only fully formed during a lunar eclipse, which occurs when the Sun, moon, and the Earth are all in perfect alignment.
Additionally, the moon can occasionally be full two times during a single month (or four times a season, based on your preferred definition).
Would you like a more thorough nighttime tour of our stony companion? Whether you want to explore the lunar oceans, the hilly terrain, or the numerous craters that dot the landscape, our comprehensive guide to moon-watching will assist you organize the next skywatching excursion. With our guide to the Apollo landing locations, you may also observe the sites that were visited by rovers, landers, and astronauts.
With these tutorials on taking pictures of the full moon and lunar eclipses, you can get ready for the upcoming full moon and eclipse. To make sure you’re prepared for an upcoming skywatching excursion, have a look at our top astrophotography cameras and lenses if you require imaging equipment.
See our recommendations for the finest binoculars and telescopes if you’re hoping to view the full moon with them.
This encalife floating lamp (3D) would make someone you know who is obsessed with the moon very happy. The lifelike globe will emit “moonlight” while it hovers and rotates in midair thanks to magnetic levitation tech. It has three color settings and supports cordless LED charging.
As per NASA, the following dates will see full moons in 2024:
| Date | Name | U.S. Eastern Time | GMT |
| 25th January | Wolf Moon | 12:54 p.m. | 17:54 |
| 24th February | Snow Moon | 7:30 a.m. | 12:30 |
| 25th March | Worm Moon | 3:00 a.m. | 07:00 |
| 23rd April | Pink Moon | 7:49 p.m. | 23:49 |
| 23rd May | Flower Moon | 9:53 a.m. | 13:53 |
| 21st June | Strawberry Moon | 9:08 p.m. | 01:08 on 22nd June |
| 21st July | Buck Moon | 6:17 a.m. | 10:17 |
| 19th August | Sturgeon Moon | 2:26 p.m. | 18:26 |
| 17th September | Harvest Moon | 10:34 p.m. | 02:34 on 18th Sept. |
| 17th October | Hunter’s Moon | 7:26 a.m. | 11:26 |
| 15th November | Beaver Moon | 4:29 p.m. | 21:29 |
| 15th December | Cold Moon | 4:02 a.m. | 09:02 |
The full moon occurs every month and has numerous names across various civilizations. Each event was given a name that was applicable for the full month. A number of American common full moon names are listed by the Farmer’s Almanac. While there are significant differences in the names of the full moons, New England’s Algonquin tribes (westward to Lake Superior) generally used the same full moon names. European colonists adopted their own traditions and gave few of their native names.
Full moon names differed among other Native Americans. Phil Konstantin, the author of “This Day in North American Indian History” (published by Da Capo Press in 2002), enumerates over fifty aboriginal peoples along with their associated full moon names. AmericanIndian.net, his website, also has a list of them.
A brief compilation of different full moon names from various civilizations, such as Celtic and Chinese, can be found on the website of Keith Cooley (an amateur astronomer).
Chinese names for moons:
| Month | Name |
| January | Holiday Moon |
| February | Budding Moon |
| March | Sleepy Moon |
| April | Peony Moon |
| May | Dragon Moon |
| June | Lotus Moon |
| July | Hungry Ghost Moon |
| August | Harvest Moon |
| September | Chrysanthemum Moon |
| October | Kindly moon |
| November | White Moon |
| December | Bitter Moon |
Autumn full moons fall in September/October, marking the conclusion of the planting season, and winter full moons fall in December when it’s freezing outside. The names of the full moon also commonly connect to seasonal indicators. That’s how it operates, at least in the North Hemisphere.
March is Harvest Moon and June is Cold Moon for the Southern Hemisphere, when the seasons get reversed. Here are several usual full moon names that occur southwards of the equator, as reported by Earthsky.org.
January: Buck Moon, Hay Moon, Mead Moon, Thunder Moon
February (middle of summer): Sturgeon Moon, Grain Moon, Red Moon, Corn Moon, Wyrt Moon, Barley Moon, Dog Moon
March: Corn Moon, Harvest Moon
April: Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, Harvest Moon
May: Frost Moon, Beaver Moon, Hunter’s Moon
June: Cold Moon, Long Night’s Moon, Oak Moon
July: Ice Moon, Old Moon, Wolf Moon
August: Wolf Moon, Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, Storm Moon
September: Lenten Moon, Worm Moon, Sugar Moon, Crow Moon, Sap Moon, Chaste Moon
October: Fish Moon, Egg Moon, Waking Moon, Pink Moon, Seed Moon
November: Milk Moon, Corn Moon, Hare Moon, Flower Moon
December: Rose Moon, Honey Moon, Strawberry Moon
In 27.3 days, the spherical moon completes one orbit of the planet. The moon’s axis of rotation likewise revolves in roughly 27 days. There’s no such thing as a “dark face” on the moon; instead, we are always shown the same face. Reflected sunlight represents what we notice when we do moon gazing because it receives light from the sun at different angles as it rotates around Earth. The moon appears every day on average fifty minutes later, so occasionally it comes during the day and occasionally at night.
The moon goes through four phases: new, quarter, full, and third quarter moons.
During a new moon, the moon is positioned between the sun and Earth, which means the portion of the moon that faces us is only partially illuminated by reflected sunlight from Earth.
Some days later, when the moon continues its orbit around Earth, the visible side gets brighter from direct sunlight. The term waxing crescent refers to this thin slice.
The first quarter refers to the lunar phase, which occurs one week following the new moon when the moon is approximately 25% of its orbit around Earth and is ninety degrees far from the sun’s position.
The illumination area keeps growing even after some days. The moon seemed to be receiving sunlight on over fifty percent of its face. The term “waxing gibbous moon” describes this phase.
An alignment of the moon, sun, and Earth is formed once the moon rotates 180 degrees beyond its new moon point. The term “full moon” refers to an event in which the moon’s disc is as near to total solar illumination as possible.
The moon then shifts until it seems like over fifty percent of its face is receiving sunlight, though not as much as before. The ‘waning gibbous’ stage is currently underway.
The moon has now traveled to its third quarter place, or one-quarter of its path around Earth, after a few days. Now the opposite half of the moon’s visible face is illuminated by the light from the sun.
Subsequently, the moon enters the waning crescent stage, with just under fifty percent of the face seeming to receive sunlight and this amount diminishing.
The moon eventually returns to its original location at the beginning of its phase. Rarely are Earth’s and the moon’s orbits exactly in line with one another because of their irregularities in identical planes. From our perspective, the moon usually travels either below or above the sun, but on rare occasions, it crosses the sun directly, causing a solar eclipse.
Every full moon is timed to arrive at a precise moment, which might or might not coincide with when the moon appears in your location. Thus, although a casual moon-watcher may not notice the variance, the full moon usually rises a few hours after or before the time when it is actually full. Actually, on 2 nights in a row around the full moon, the moon typically looks almost exactly the same.
There is a direct correlation between lunar eclipses and full moons. Check our guide on lunar eclipse to learn when and where to witness the following lunar eclipse.
A lunar eclipse can occur once the moon enters its full aspect and moves behind the planet Earth in relation to the sun. A full lunar eclipse takes place as the moon completely passes through the shadow of the Earth. In some instances, the moon experiences a partial or penumbral lunar eclipse, when it only partially enters Earth’s shadow, merely skimming the outermost portion of it.
A partial moon eclipse will occur on September 17–18, 2024, and a penumbral moon eclipse will occur on 25th March. Nevertheless, none will be very spectacular.
The moon will pass into the farthest point of the shadow of the Earth during the 25th March lunar eclipse (penumbral), which will be a very mild lunar eclipse. As per TimeandDate.com, it can be observed from a significant portion of South America, North America, Europe, East and North Asia, Antarctica, and the Arctic.
Starting at 12:53 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (0453 GMT), the penumbral eclipse is expected to last for two hours, reaching its greatest stage at 3:12 a.m. (0712 GMT). It ends at 5:32 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (0932 GMT). The lunar eclipse will last for 4 hours & 39 minutes in total.
TimeandDate.com reports that the lunar eclipse (partial) on September 17–18 will be seen over Europe, a large portion of Asia, North America, Africa, the Pacific, South America, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic, Antarctica, the Indian Ocean, and the Arctic.
The partial eclipse will start at 8:41 p.m. (0141 GMT on September 18), reach its maximum at 10:44 p.m. (0341 GMT on September 18), and terminate at 12:47 a.m. (0547 GMT) on September 18. (All times in EDT). The partial eclipse will last for four hours and six minutes in total.
The side of the moon towards Earth seems black because it is passing between the sun and the Earth during its “new” cycle. See our guide on to learn where and when the subsequent eclipse will occur.
The moon can occasionally obscure all or part of the sun as seen from Earth due to its orbital alignment with the sun. Total solar eclipses, which occur during the course of the day whenever the moon totally obscures the sun’s disc, may offer incredibly breathtaking sights. At other times, a solar eclipse (partial) is only possible when the moon can partially obscure the sun.
Although the moon is far enough from Earth to completely hide the sun’s disc, it can still produce a solar eclipse called “rings of fire” as it crosses in the direction of the sun. A solar eclipse (annular) is produced as a result, leaving an “annulus”, or ring encircling the moon.
An annular eclipse will occur on 2nd October 2 and a total eclipse will occur on 8th April 2024.
On 8th April 2024, there will be a solar eclipse (total) that will cover Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
It will happen just 6 months following a spectacular annular eclipse that showed in the 8 states of Southwest of the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Colombia.
You should be anywhere along the annularity route, which passes over Chile and Argentina, in order to witness all of the eclipse’s stages, including the well-known “ring of fire”. The moon will appear to get a “bite” from the sun during a partial eclipse that observers located outside but close to the path of annularity will witness.
Have a quick question? We answered nearly 2000 FAQs.
See all blogs: Business | Corporate | Employment Law
Most recent blogs:
Contact our attorney.