Hunter's Moon

October's full moon, the Hunter's Moon, reaches peak illumination on Monday, October 26, 2026, at 12:12 a.m. EDT. Everywhere west of the Eastern time zone, that moment falls on the evening of Sunday, October 25. So for most of the US, the full moon is a Sunday-night event. It is the first full moon after the Harvest Moon of September 26, and it lights up the week before Halloween.

Quick facts

Peak time by US time zone

The Moon becomes exactly full at one instant for the whole planet. Only the clock reading changes.

The US is still on daylight saving time on these dates. Clocks fall back on Sunday, November 1, 2026. Times are calculated with the astronomy-engine library. Published times sometimes differ by about a minute between sources because of rounding; timeanddate.com, for example, lists 12:11 a.m. EDT.

Best viewing tips

Watch the moonrise, not the peak. Peak illumination is a technical moment. To the naked eye, the Moon looks full for about a day on either side. The most striking view is the Moon rising over the eastern horizon around sunset. In New York City, for example, the Moon rises at about 5:26 p.m. EDT on October 25, roughly half an hour before the 6:01 p.m. sunset. On October 26 it rises at about 5:58 p.m., almost exactly at sunset. Your city's times will differ, so check the Moonlix moonrise page for your location.

Find a low, open horizon. A beach, a lakeshore, an open field or a hilltop that faces east works best. Close to the horizon, the Moon often looks orange and unusually large. The color comes from Earth's atmosphere scattering away blue light. The "bigger" look is the well-known Moon illusion, a trick of perception; the Moon's actual size in the sky barely changes.

Bring binoculars. Even simple 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars show the dark lunar seas (maria) and the bright rays around the crater Tycho. A full moon shows very little shadow detail, so craters along the edge of the disk look flatter than they do at quarter phases.

Photographing it. Use a tripod and a lens of 200 mm or longer if you have one. Shoot during the "blue hour" just after sunset, so the landscape and the Moon can both be exposed in one frame. Later in the night, the Moon is far brighter than anything around it. Expose for the Moon itself, starting around ISO 100, f/8 and 1/250 s, then adjust.

Halloween bonus. By Saturday, October 31, the Moon is a waning gibbous. It rises a few hours after sunset and is still bright later in the evening.

Name origin and folklore

The name Hunter's Moon is a traditional English name. It follows the Harvest Moon. In the agricultural calendar, once the fields were cut, hunters could more easily see deer and other game moving across the bare stubble by moonlight. Families then stocked up meat for the coming winter.

The Hunter's Moon is defined by its place in the calendar, not by a fixed month. The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the September equinox, and the Hunter's Moon is the one after it. In 2026 the equinox falls on September 22 (US time), and the closest full moon is September 26. That makes October 26 the Hunter's Moon. In some years the Harvest Moon falls in October, and the Hunter's Moon then moves into November.

Like the Harvest Moon, the Hunter's Moon rises at a fairly short interval from one night to the next in mid-northern latitudes. Around this time of year, the Moon's path makes a shallow angle with the evening horizon, so for several evenings in a row a bright Moon appears soon after sunset. That extra evening light is part of why both autumn moons became tied to work in the fields and woods.

Other names collected for the October full moon include Travel Moon, Dying Grass Moon and Falling Leaves Moon. These names are often credited to various Native American traditions. Different nations and languages used different names, so no single list is authoritative. Most full moon names popular in the US today were spread by the Old Farmer's Almanac and the Farmers' Almanac.

What else is in the sky

The Orionid meteor shower, produced by debris from Comet Halley, typically peaks around October 21. In 2026 the Moon is a waxing gibbous on that night and sets in the early morning hours, so the hours before dawn are the darkest window. After the Hunter's Moon, the next full moon is the Beaver Moon on November 24, 2026.