2027 Full Moon Calendar: Dates, Times and Traditional Names

The night sky keeps a patient count. 2027 has twelve full moons, one in each calendar month, from the Wolf Moon on January 22 to the Cold Moon on December 13. Two of them are penumbral lunar eclipses, on February 20 and August 17. The Harvest Moon falls on September 15. There is no blue moon by the usual monthly rule, but by the older seasonal rule the May 20 full moon qualifies. The table gives each full moon in Eastern, Pacific, London and Sydney time, with its sign and traditional name.

The 12 full moons of 2027

The times are converted from the exact moment of each full moon, with daylight saving already applied where it is in force on that date. We computed the moments ourselves and checked them against a second, independent ephemeris; all twelve agreed to within a minute or two. The eclipse labels come from NASA’s eclipse catalogue, not from our own computation.

About the traditional names

Each month carries an old folk name, passed down like a coat. The names in the last column, Wolf, Snow, Worm, Pink, Flower, Strawberry, Buck, Sturgeon, Harvest, Hunter’s, Beaver and Cold, are North American folk names, popularised by almanacs and usually attributed to a mix of Indigenous and colonial traditions. They are not official, they vary from source to source, and almanacs often list several alternatives for each month. We print the most common set and label it for what it is.

Two cautions. First, the names belong to the calendar month in the northern hemisphere, so in Sydney a “Snow Moon” rises in late summer and a “Strawberry Moon” in midwinter; our Australian edition leaves the names out for that reason. Second, the names are tied to the month, and the month depends on your time zone. In 2027 every full moon stays inside the same month in all four regions, so the names hold wherever you are. That is not true every year.

The Harvest Moon is September 15

Like a round fruit hanging on the branch, the Harvest Moon is the one name with a rule behind it: it is the full moon nearest the September equinox, which in 2027 falls on September 23. The September 15 full moon is eight days before the equinox and the October 15 full moon is 22 days after it, so September takes the Harvest Moon and October takes the Hunter’s Moon. In London the Harvest Moon rises on the evening of September 15 but reaches fullness three minutes after midnight, on September 16; in Sydney fullness comes at 9:03 am on the 16th.

Two lunar eclipses, and one you will not see

A lunar eclipse is a full moon that lines up exactly, so the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow. The shadow has two parts: a dark central umbra, and a faint outer penumbra. In a penumbral eclipse the moon crosses only the outer part, which dims it slightly without taking a bite out of it. NASA’s catalogue lists three for 2027:

• February 20 (greatest at 23:13 UTC). A deep penumbral eclipse, magnitude 0.927, which means the moon travels almost to the edge of the dark umbra. Near maximum, one edge of the moon looks noticeably dusky. Visible, weather permitting, from Europe, Asia, Africa, much of North America and South America. For New York that is 6:13 pm, with the moon low in the east; for London, 11:13 pm, high in the sky; for Sydney, 10:13 am on the 21st, with the moon below the horizon.
• August 17 (greatest at 07:14 UTC). A lighter penumbral eclipse, magnitude 0.546, with a subtle shading on one side of the moon. Visible from the Americas, western Europe, Australia, and north and west Africa. For Los Angeles that is 12:14 am; for New York, 3:14 am; for Sydney, 5:14 pm, around moonrise.
• July 18. NASA lists this one too, at magnitude 0.0014: the moon barely grazes the outermost edge of the penumbra. It is an eclipse on paper and nothing to the eye, which is why we do not mark it on our calendars, and why you should be wary of any 2027 guide that counts it as a visible event.

A blue moon, by one definition

The popular rule says a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. In 2027 there is none: each month has exactly one full moon, in New York, Los Angeles, London, Sydney and UTC alike. By that rule 2027 is a year without a blue moon, and most sources will say so.

The older rule, from the Maine Farmers’ Almanac, counts full moons by astronomical season instead. A season normally holds three; when it holds four, the third is the blue moon. We checked 2027 against the equinox and solstice moments, and the spring between the March 20 equinox and the June 21 solstice holds four: March 22, April 20, May 20 and June 19. The third is May 20. So if you follow the seasonal rule, 2027 does have a blue moon, and it happens to be a second full moon in Scorpio in a row: the April full moon is at 1 degree of Scorpio and the May full moon at 29 degrees, because the moon’s sign at full moon is opposite the sun’s, and the sun was still in Taurus for both.

Both rules are right about their own definition. Choose one and say which you are using.

The closest and farthest full moons

“Supermoon” is not an astronomical term, and sources disagree about how close a full moon must be to earn it. Rather than pick a definition, we computed the distance from the centre of the Earth to the centre of the moon at each full moon:

• Closest: January 22, about 357,600 km. This is the only 2027 full moon under 360,000 km, and it would be called a supermoon under almost any popular definition. It looks slightly larger and brighter than average, though the difference is hard to see without a comparison.
• Next closest: February 20 at about 363,300 km and December 13 at about 368,100 km. Whether these count as supermoons depends on whose threshold you use.
• Farthest: July 18, about 406,000 km, with August 17 close behind at about 405,100 km. Some sources call the farthest full moon of the year a micromoon.

Which full-moon dates change with your time zone

A full moon is an instant, shared by everyone on Earth; only the clock differs. Of the twelve:

• Sydney moves six to the next day: February 21, April 21, July 19, September 16, October 16 and December 14.
• New York and Los Angeles move two to the evening before: June 18 and November 13 (the UTC dates are June 19 and November 14). Central and Mountain time match.
• London moves one: the September 15 full moon falls at 12:03 am on September 16, BST.

Elsewhere: Central and Eastern Europe (Paris, Berlin, Rome, Athens) have February 21 and April 21, because those two full moons fall just after midnight there. Alaska and Hawaii have August 16 instead of August 17. Brisbane keeps October 15 (Sydney, on daylight time, has October 16); Perth has July 18 and October 15; Auckland has January 23. If your city is not here, convert from the UTC column: the full moon happens at the same instant everywhere.

Why the moon looks full for three nights

The table gives the instant the moon is exactly opposite the sun. To the eye, the moon is more than 98 percent lit the evening before and the evening after, which is why “the full moon” seems to last a weekend. If you want to see it at its roundest, look on the night closest to the time in your column. If you are reviewing a goal or writing something down, any of the three evenings is fine; the date is a landmark, not a deadline.

What to do with a full moon

Most moon calendars mark the full moon and leave it there. We think it is more useful as a fixed review date: a full moon arrives about fifteen days after each new moon, so if you set an intention at the new moon, the full moon is the evening to sit with your notebook, read it back, write down what actually happened, and decide what to keep, change or let go. We have written that up as a ten-minute full moon release ritual, with no candles required.

Our 2027 calendar, Thirteen New Moons, hangs the whole year on that rhythm: each of the twelve full moons has a Release page that names the intention it reviews, printed in your own region’s time, in Americas, UK and Europe, Australia and NZ, and Middle East editions, with all 25 moons on a single page. If you only want the dates on a wall, the free 2027 calendar marks every full and new moon in UTC.

FAQ

Is there a blue moon in 2027?

Not by the monthly rule: every month has one full moon in all four regions. By the seasonal rule, yes: the spring of 2027 holds four full moons, and the third, on May 20, is a seasonal blue moon. It will not look blue. No blue moon does.

Which 2027 full moons are eclipses, and can I see them?

February 20 and August 17 are penumbral lunar eclipses: a slight shading, no dark bite. February 20 is visible from Europe, Africa, Asia and much of the Americas; August 17 from the Americas, western Europe, Australia and parts of Africa. The July 18 eclipse is listed by NASA but is too slight to see. There is no total or partial lunar eclipse in 2027.

Are the full moon names official?

No. They are folk names collected and popularised by almanacs, and lists vary. Astronomers do not use them, and they belong to northern-hemisphere seasons. Use them for pleasure, not for precision.

Why do different websites give different dates for the same full moon?

Usually because they are quoting different time zones. The instant is the same; the date can change when it falls near midnight. In 2027 eight of the twelve full moons fall on a different date in at least one of New York, Los Angeles, London and Sydney compared with UTC. Check which zone a source uses before you compare.

Why are there two full moons in Scorpio?

Because the full moon’s sign is opposite the sun’s. The sun is in Taurus from about April 20 to May 21, and both the April 20 and May 20 full moons fall inside that window, one at the very start of Scorpio and one at the very end. Correspondingly, there is no full moon in Cancer in 2027.