12-03-2025
3 Full Supermoons Will Light Up the Night Sky in 2025—Here's How and When to See Them
For some events, three might be a crowd. But at the end of 2025, the trio of back-to-back full supermoons will certainly be a welcome sight for stargazers. According to NASA, there will be three consecutive full supermoons this year, occurring within the first week of October, November, and December. This celestial phenomenon takes place three to four times a year when the moon appears larger than usual. Here's when and how to see all of the full supermoons that will occur this year.
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To be considered "super," a new or full moon has to occur when the moon's orbit is nearing its closest point to Earth (known as perigee). According to NASA, it takes approximately 27 days for the moon to take a trip around our planet, so it reaches perigee once a month at a distance of roughly 226,000 miles away.
Because the moon's orbit changes depending on where the sun and Earth are in their orbits, some supermoons are closer or farther than others. For this reason, a new or full moon is considered a supermoon if it is as least 90 percent from perigee, which happens about three to four times a month.
Has there ever been a time you looked at the rising or setting moon and it looked enormous? Different from a supermoon, this is a phenomenon known as moon illusion, and it's just your mind playing tricks on you. While continued research for the reason this happens is still needed, moon illusion often occurs when a full moon is close to the horizon.
According to NASA, some proposed explanations have to do with how our brains perceive the size of objects that are nearer or farther away, and how far away we think objects are when they're close to the horizon. It's believed that our brains don't know that the moon's distance doesn't change based on where it is in the sky.
So, what is the difference between a full supermoon versus a new supermoon? It's simple—one we can see, and the other we can't. These two moon phases are opposite one another and are defined by the location of where the Earth, sun, and moon are.
A new moon takes place when, in its orbit, the entire face of the moon we see from Earth is not sunlit, meaning it looks dark or invisible to us. A new supermoon is when a new moon occurs near the perigee. On the contrary, once it continues in its rotation cycle and arrives at the point where we get a complete view of the moon glowing in sunlight, a full supermoon can occur.
Here's when you can spot all of the full supermoons in 2025.
The first one of the year, the full Harvest Supermoon, will reach its brightest illumination on the evening of October 6 at 11:48 p.m. EDT. This glowing orb in the sky, which occurs near the autumnal equinox, will look larger than life when it passes by the horizon.
According to The Old Farmers Almanac, because this full moon is the closest to the changing of seasons, it's given the name Harvest Moon, even though the October full moon is typically called the Hunter's Moon. In the years when this happens, September's full moon, which is normally named the Harvest Moon, is referred to as the Corn Moon. Why these labels? According to folklore, it's the time of year when the hunters and farmers start their preparations for winter and frosty months.
The full Beaver Supermoon is the second full supermoon of the year and will be at its brightest on the morning of November 5 at 8:19 a.m. EDT. This supermoon will be a true one by definition, as it will be at 100 percent perigee at 221,817 miles from Earth.
According to The Old Farmers Almanac, the Beaver Moon nickname originates from European, Colonial, and Native American culture. It is the annual time beavers start to get ready for the upcoming winter, finding shelter and building their food supply.
Lastly, we end the year with the full Cold Supermoon. Approaching 221,965 miles from Earth, this moon will shine its brightest on December 4 at 6:14 p.m. EDT.
As its name implies, this full supermoon takes place during one of the coldest months of the year. According to The Old Farmers Almanac, its alias comes from North American tribes and the Celtic heritage. December marks the beginning of the winter season, which typically experiences some of the coldest weather of the year, so naming it the Cold Moon seemed very fitting.
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