When and where to see the Beaver Moon 2026
The exact moment of full moon is Tuesday, November 24, 2026 at 9:54 AM in New York. The best night to watch is Tuesday, November 24, when the Moon comes up at 4:15 PM, low in the northeast, about 16 minutes before sunset. It climbs to about 76° above the horizon around 12:16 AM and sets around sunrise the next morning.
A full moon looks full for about three nights. From New York the Moon is 99% lit when it rises the evening before and 97% the evening after, and on those nights it rises 47 minutes and 59 minutes later each evening.
The Moon is at a declination of +25.2° this time, well north of the celestial equator, so for the Northern Hemisphere it rides high and stays up a long time. It sits in front of the stars of Taurus, close to the Pleiades (2.7° away).
| City | Exact full moon (local time) |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Tuesday, November 24, 2026, 6:54 AM |
| New York | Tuesday, November 24, 2026, 9:54 AM |
| London | Tuesday, November 24, 2026, 2:54 PM |
| Berlin | Tuesday, November 24, 2026, 3:54 PM |
| New Delhi | Tuesday, November 24, 2026, 8:24 PM |
| Tokyo | Tuesday, November 24, 2026, 11:54 PM |
| Sydney | Wednesday, November 25, 2026, 1:54 AM |
Why is it called the Beaver Moon?
The Beaver Moon is the November full moon. The Old Farmer's Almanac gives two explanations that fit together: beavers are busy finishing their lodges and storing food before the ponds freeze, and in the fur trade era it was the time to set beaver traps, before the swamps iced over, to secure warm winter furs.
Beaver pelts drove much of the early colonial economy of the northeast, which may be why this name stuck when the almanacs gathered the list.
Other names for the November full moon
The almanac names are one tradition among many. Native American peoples used hundreds of moon names that followed their own local seasons, and the attributions below are those given by the Old Farmer's Almanac:
- Frost Moon: Cree and Assiniboine
- Freezing Moon: Ojibwe
- Deer Rutting Moon: Dakota
- Digging or Scratching Moon: Tlingit
- Whitefish Moon: Algonquin
November in nature and the sky
November is late autumn: the trees are bare, the first hard frosts and snows arrive in the north, and animals prepare for winter. Beavers are at their busiest, and the November nights are long enough for the winter constellations, Orion and Taurus, to be up by mid-evening.
The November full moon passes through Aries or Taurus, often close to the Pleiades, and climbs high in the sky at midnight.
Festivals on the Beaver Moon 2026
Many of the world's calendars are lunar, so festivals around the globe fall on this same full moon. Dates below were checked against published calendars; where India and the US keep different dates, both are given.
Kartik Purnima and Guru Nanak Jayanti
November 24, 2026
The full moon of Kartik is one of the holiest days of the Hindu year, with ritual bathing in the Ganges and lamps floated on rivers. Sikhs celebrate Guru Nanak Jayanti (Gurpurab), the birth anniversary of the first Sikh Guru, on the same day, in India and in New York alike.
Dev Deepawali
November 24, 2026 (India), November 23 in New York
In Varanasi the riverside ghats are lit with hundreds of thousands of oil lamps for the "Diwali of the gods".
Loy Krathong
November 24, 2026
In Thailand people float small decorated baskets (krathong) with candles and incense on rivers and lakes under the full moon of the 12th Thai lunar month. In northern Thailand the Yi Peng lantern festival is held at the same time.
Il Poya
November 24, 2026
The Sri Lankan full moon holiday of the month of Il, remembering the Buddha sending out his first disciples to teach.
The Moon is still nearly full on US Thanksgiving, Thursday November 26, 2026, rising in the early evening. Earlier in the month the Leonid meteor shower peaks on the night of November 16 to 17, when a first quarter Moon sets around midnight and leaves the early-morning hours dark.
Supermoon, micromoon or neither?
The Beaver Moon 2026 is 360,754 km from Earth, centre to centre. That is closer than our supermoon line of 362,500 km, so it counts as a supermoon: about 7% wider and 14% brighter than a full moon at the average distance. Of the 13 full moons of 2026, it is the 2nd closest. The biggest is the Cold Moon at 356,729 km and the smallest the Blue Moon at 406,126 km.
The Beaver Moon from the Southern Hemisphere
South of the equator November is late spring, with jacaranda blossom in Australia and South Africa, and the full moon is low and short-lived. The full moon happens at the same instant worldwide; in Sydney it is Wednesday, November 25, 2026 at 1:54 AM, and the Moon climbs to about 30° there that night, compared with 76° from New York. South of the equator the Moon also looks upside down to northern eyes, with the dark "Man in the Moon" features flipped.
Before and after the Beaver Moon
More: All full moon names · Moon calendar 2026 · Next full moon · Moon phase today