When and where to see the Buck Moon 2027
The exact moment of full moon is Sunday, July 18, 2027 at 11:45 AM in New York. The best night to watch is Sunday, July 18, when the Moon comes up at 8:38 PM, low in the east-southeast, about 14 minutes after sunset. It climbs to about 28° above the horizon around 1:39 AM and sets around sunrise the next morning.
A full moon looks full for about three nights. From New York the Moon is 100% lit when it rises the evening before and 98% the evening after, and on those nights it rises 33 minutes and 28 minutes later each evening. Those short gaps are the shallow autumn angle of the Moon's path at work, the effect behind the Harvest and Hunter's Moons.
The Moon is at a declination of -22.2° this time, well south of the celestial equator, so for the Northern Hemisphere it stays low and is up for a shorter time, while the Southern Hemisphere sees it high. It sits in front of the stars of Sagittarius.
| City | Exact full moon (local time) |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Sunday, July 18, 2027, 8:45 AM |
| New York | Sunday, July 18, 2027, 11:45 AM |
| London | Sunday, July 18, 2027, 4:45 PM |
| Berlin | Sunday, July 18, 2027, 5:45 PM |
| New Delhi | Sunday, July 18, 2027, 9:15 PM |
| Tokyo | Monday, July 19, 2027, 12:45 AM |
| Sydney | Monday, July 19, 2027, 1:45 AM |
Why is it called the Buck Moon?
The Buck Moon is the July full moon. According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, it is named for the new antlers of male deer, which grow fast in early summer, covered in soft, blood-rich velvet, before hardening in late summer.
Other July names describe thunderstorms, ripening berries and moulting birds, a sign of how the almanac list gathers names from many different peoples and regions.
Other names for the July 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:
- Thunder Moon: Western Abenaki
- Feather Moulting Moon: Cree
- Raspberry Moon: Algonquin and Ojibwe
- Salmon Moon: Tlingit
- Halfway Summer Moon: Anishinaabe
July in nature and the sky
July is high summer: the warmest month in much of the Northern Hemisphere, with frequent afternoon thunderstorms in North America. Deer antlers reach their full size, songbirds finish nesting, and the evening air is full of insects and bats.
The July full moon is still low, crossing Sagittarius or Capricornus near the rich star fields of the Milky Way's centre, which the bright moonlight hides for a few nights.
Festivals on the Buck Moon 2027
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.
Guru Purnima
July 18, 2027
Hindus, Buddhists and Jains honour their teachers on the full moon of Ashadha. It is also called Vyasa Purnima, for the sage traditionally credited with compiling the Vedas and the Mahabharata.
Asalha Bucha and Khao Phansa
July 18 and 19, 2027 (Thailand)
Thai Buddhists remember the Buddha's first sermon on Asalha Bucha, and the three-month rains retreat (Buddhist Lent) begins the next day.
Esala Poya
July 18, 2027
Sri Lanka's July full moon, the season of the great Esala Perahera processions in Kandy.
A penumbral lunar eclipse technically happens on July 18, 2027, but the Moon only grazes the outer edge of Earth's shadow, by less than 1% of its width, so nothing can be seen. See the lunar eclipse list.
Supermoon, micromoon or neither?
The Buck Moon 2027 is 405,968 km from Earth, centre to centre. That is beyond our micromoon line of 405,000 km, so it is a micromoon, about 5% narrower than a full moon at the average distance. Of the 12 full moons of 2027, it is the 12th closest. The biggest is the Wolf Moon at 357,635 km and the smallest the Buck Moon at 405,968 km.
Eclipse: this full moon passes through Earth's shadow in a penumbral lunar eclipse, greatest at 4:02 PM UTC. The Moon only grazes the faint outer shadow, so nothing will be visible. Details and visibility for your city are on the blood moon and lunar eclipse page.
The Buck Moon from the Southern Hemisphere
In the Southern Hemisphere July is the depth of winter, with the year's highest full moons and longest nights. Midwinter is also when the Maori new year, Matariki, is celebrated in New Zealand (in June or July), timed by the dawn rising of the Pleiades rather than by the full moon. The full moon happens at the same instant worldwide; in Sydney it is Monday, July 19, 2027 at 1:45 AM, and the Moon climbs to about 78° there that night, compared with 28° 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 Buck Moon
More: All full moon names · Moon calendar 2027 · Next full moon · Moon phase today