Wolf Moon

January's full moon, the Wolf Moon, reaches peak illumination on Saturday, January 3, 2026, at 5:03 a.m. EST (10:03 UTC). To the naked eye, the Moon looks full for about a day on either side of the peak. That makes the evenings of January 2 and January 3 the best nights to watch it rise.

Quick facts

Peak time by US time zone

The Moon is exactly full at one instant worldwide. Only the clock reading changes.

Times are calculated with the open-source astronomy-engine library. Other published sources may differ by about a minute because of rounding.

Is it a supermoon?

Yes, under the widely used definition (a full moon within 90% of the Moon's closest approach in that orbit). At full phase the Moon is about 362,301 km from Earth (center to center), and perigee (360,336 km) comes 36 hours before the peak.

Best viewing tips

Watch the moonrise. In New York City, the Moon rises at about 3:39 p.m. on January 2 (sunset 4:40 p.m.) and at about 4:55 p.m. on January 3 (sunset 4:41 p.m.). Times for your city will differ, so check the Moonlix moonrise page for your location.

Find a clear eastern horizon. Near the horizon, the full moon often looks orange and unusually large. The color comes from Earth's atmosphere filtering out blue light. The size is the well-known Moon illusion, a trick of perception rather than a real change.

Where it sits in the sky. At its highest, this full moon is high in the sky for mid-northern US latitudes. January full moons sit high in the sky for Northern Hemisphere observers, because the full moon is opposite the Sun, and the winter Sun is low. A high January Moon stays up most of the long night and can light snowy landscapes surprisingly well.

Binoculars and cameras. Ordinary 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars show the dark lunar seas and the bright rays around the crater Tycho. For photos, use a tripod and a telephoto lens, shoot during blue hour just after sunset, and expose for the Moon. A good starting point is ISO 100, f/8 and 1/250 s.

Name origin and folklore

The Wolf Moon is usually linked to wolves heard howling in the cold, long nights of midwinter. Most modern almanacs, including the Old Farmer's Almanac, list it as January's traditional name. As with most full moon names in the US, it reached the modern list through colonial-era almanacs, which mixed European names with names borrowed from Native American traditions.

Other names recorded for this month's full moon include Old Moon, Ice Moon. Most full moon names popular in the US today were spread by the Old Farmer's Almanac and the Farmers' Almanac. Native nations had their own names, which varied by region and language, so no single list is "official."

What else is in the sky

The main meteor shower this month is the Quadrantids (early January). Check the Moon's phase on the peak night, because bright moonlight hides fainter meteors. Use the January 2026 moon calendar to see every phase, and the daily moon phase pages for illumination on any date.