Key Takeaways
- Tonight's full moon is a Blue Moon — the second full moon in May 2026
- It's also a Micromoon, sitting near its farthest point from Earth at around 406,000 km
- The moon will appear near Antares, the bright red heart of Scorpius, low in the southern sky
- Look southeast from around 10pm BST as the moon climbs above the horizon
- A micromoon appears roughly 14% smaller and 30% dimmer than a supermoon — but still beautiful
📑 Table of Contents
May 2026 ends with a lovely coincidence of celestial timing. Tonight's full moon is a Blue Moon — the second full moon to fall within a single calendar month — and it also happens to be a Micromoon, sitting close to its farthest point from Earth. The combination is rarer than either event alone, and it comes with a scenic bonus: the moon will be hanging close to Antares, one of the most dramatically coloured stars in the night sky.
Here's everything you need to know to make the most of it.
What Is a Blue Moon?
Despite the name, a Blue Moon has nothing to do with colour. It's simply the name astronomers and skywatchers use for the second full moon in a single calendar month.
The moon takes about 29.5 days to complete a full cycle, which means most months — with their 30 or 31 days — contain just one full moon. But occasionally the timing lines up so that a full moon falls near the very start of a month, leaving enough time for a second one before the month ends. That second full moon is the Blue Moon.
May 2026 had its first full moon on 1st May, and tonight — the 31st — brings the second. It won't happen again in May until 2029.
The phrase "once in a blue moon" comes from this very rarity. It's not an every-year event, and when one falls on the final evening of a month it always feels like the sky is squeezing in one last spectacle before turning the page.
What Is a Micromoon?
The moon's orbit around Earth isn't a perfect circle — it's slightly elliptical, which means the distance between the two bodies varies throughout the month. The closest point is called perigee (giving us the well-known Supermoon), and the farthest point is called apogee. A full moon occurring near apogee is a Micromoon.
Tonight the moon sits at approximately 406,135 km from Earth, compared to its average distance of around 384,400 km. At its closest during a supermoon it can be as near as 356,000 km — so tonight's moon is noticeably farther away than usual.
In practice this means the moon will appear roughly 14% smaller in diameter and about 30% less bright than a supermoon. Most people can't detect the difference by eye alone, but put a supermoon and a micromoon side by side in a photograph and the gap is obvious.
What it does do is subtly change the mood. A micromoon rising through evening mist looks a little more remote, a little more mysterious — less of a dominating presence, more of a quiet companion. For photographers especially, that can be a gift.
How to Watch Tonight From the UK
The moon officially reached peak fullness at 09:45 BST this morning, so by tonight it will be a touch past perfect — but to the naked eye it will look completely full. The human eye simply cannot tell the difference between a moon that is 100% illuminated and one that is 99.7%.
For UK skywatchers the key times to look out are:
- Moonrise: Approximately 9:30–10:00pm BST depending on your location, appearing low in the southeast
- Best viewing window: From around 11pm to 2am BST, when the moon is as high as it will get for the night
- Moon sets: Around 5:30am BST on 1st June
A word of warning for those in northern England and Scotland: Scorpius — the constellation the moon is visiting tonight — is a southerly constellation that barely clears the horizon from UK latitudes. From London you'll see the moon reach perhaps 15–18° above the horizon at its highest point. From Edinburgh that drops to around 10–12°. Make sure you have a clear view to the south, free of buildings and treelines.
The upside? A moon skimming low along the horizon often looks spectacular. Low-angle moonrises produce the famous "moon illusion," where the brain interprets the moon as larger than it really is. Pair that with some atmospheric haze and you may well end up with a luminous orange or gold disc — even on a micromoon night.
The Moon Meets Antares
One of the highlights of tonight's moon is its neighbour. As the moon rises in the southeast, look for the bright reddish-orange star just a few degrees away — that's Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius and one of the most visually striking stars in the entire night sky.
Antares is a red supergiant, roughly 700 times the diameter of our own Sun and sitting about 550 light-years away. Its name derives from "Anti-Ares" — the rival of Mars — because ancient astronomers noticed its distinctly reddish colour was so similar to the planet that they could be confused. Tonight, with the full moon blazing nearby, you can see exactly what they meant.
The pairing makes for a beautiful sight and an interesting binoculars target. Even through modest binoculars you'll see the orange star competing with the moon's white brilliance — a reminder that not everything in the night sky runs to the same colour temperature.
Tips for Photographing It
A low, golden moon rising over a recognisable landscape is one of the most reliably rewarding shots in astrophotography, and tonight's conditions are well-suited for it.
For smartphone users: The key is to lock your exposure. On most phones, tap and hold on the moon in the viewfinder to lock focus and exposure, then drag the exposure slider down if the moon is blowing out to a featureless white blob. The moon is much brighter than it looks — your camera's auto exposure will almost always overexpose it.
For DSLR/mirrorless users: A rough starting point for a full moon is ISO 100, f/8, 1/250s. Dial in from there. If you're shooting the moonrise over a landscape and want both properly exposed, you'll need to blend two exposures — one for the foreground, one for the moon.
Composition: Position yourself early. Find a landmark — a church spire, a silhouetted tree, a hilltop — and work out where the moon will rise behind it using an app like PhotoPills or The Photographer's Ephemeris. The moon moves faster than you expect.
The moon illusion: Shoot the moon as it rises, when it's within 10–15° of the horizon. That's when the illusion of extra size is strongest, and when the orange-gold tones from atmospheric scattering are at their richest.
When Is the Next One?
The next Blue Moon — again defined as a second full moon in a single calendar month — will fall on 31st January 2028. So you have a bit of a wait.
The next Micromoon (a full moon near apogee) will occur on 25th October 2026, when the moon reaches its farthest point from Earth for the year. And the next time both events coincide in the same night? That's a rarer alignment — which makes tonight worth stepping outside for, clear skies or not.
If clouds are blocking your view from the UK tonight, NASA and several European space agencies typically offer live streams of notable full moons — check the NASA YouTube channel or the Virtual Telescope Project for a real-time feed.
Clear skies, and enjoy the show.
Sources:
- What's Up: May 2026 Skywatching Tips — NASA Science
- Blue Moon May 2026 — Space & Telescope
- Visible planets and night sky guide for May and June — EarthSky
