Full Moon July 2027: The Buck Moon
Sunday 18 July at 16:45 BST. UK moonrise times, what the name means, and every July full Moon to 2028.
The July 2027 full Moon, the Buck Moon, is on Sunday 18 July 2027 at 16:45 BST. It rises at about 21:15 in London, 21:30 in Birmingham and 21:55 in Edinburgh that evening, and looks full to the eye the night before and the night after. For the one coming up next, whatever the month, see when is the next full moon.
Buck Moon
Sunday 18 July 2027 · full at 16:45 BST · 405,989 km away
Moonrise on the evening of Sunday 18 July; moonset the next morning at about 05:40 (Birmingham). Rounded to five minutes; hills and buildings on your horizon move them.
Why is the July full Moon called the Buck Moon?
The Buck Moon is named for the new antlers that bucks grow in early summer. The names are folklore rather than astronomy: most come from the Algonquian peoples of north-eastern North America, were adopted by colonial settlers and were popularised by the Maine Farmers' Almanac from the 1930s onwards. Our full moon names guide covers all twelve and the blue moons and supermoons that sometimes join them.
Full moon July dates: 2026 to 2028
| Year | Full Moon (UK time) | Name | Moonrise Birmingham | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Wednesday 29 July 2026, 15:36 BST | Buck Moon | about 21:20 | |
| 2027 | Sunday 18 July 2027, 16:45 BST | Buck Moon | about 21:30 | Micromoon, near apogee |
| 2028 | Thursday 6 July 2028, 19:12 BST | Buck Moon | about 21:35 |
The Moon takes 29.5 days to go from one full Moon to the next, so each year's July full Moon falls about 11 days earlier than the year before, then jumps forward again once a thirteenth full Moon has squeezed in.
The July full Moon in the UK sky
July's full Moon stays low in the south and the nights are still short. The Perseid meteor shower starts to build in the second half of July, but the main event is in August. For what else is up this week, see the UK night sky this week, and check cloud for your postcode with our stargazing tonight tool before you go out.
Is the July 2027 full Moon a supermoon?
No. At the moment it is full the Moon is about 405,989 km from Earth, outside the nearest tenth of the Moon's distance range (about 361,500 km), the rule this site uses for a supermoon. The next supermoon is the Beaver Moon on 24 November 2026. Distances come from the same lunar calculation as the dates above; a supermoon is a matter of definition, not a different kind of Moon.
How to see and photograph the Buck Moon
- Watch it rise. Face east ten minutes before the moonrise time above, with a low horizon. Near the horizon the Moon looks enormous (the Moon illusion) and often deep orange.
- Look the night before or after if you want detail: at full the Moon is flat and shadowless, but a day either side the terminator returns and craters along it throw long shadows. Our Moon page says what to look for.
- Photograph it with a phone on a tripod or any camera: a moonrise over a landscape is the easiest astrophoto there is. Settings are in our guide to photographing the Moon.
- Save the faint stuff for new Moon. A full Moon washes out the Milky Way, galaxies and all but the brightest meteor showers; the darkest week of the month is around the new Moon, listed on our moon phase tonight page.
Kit for a full Moon night
Kit we've reviewed in full
No equipment needed for the Moon itself, but binoculars turn the bright disc into a landscape and a moon filter makes a telescope view comfortable. See our best binoculars for stargazing for more.
Sharp 10×50s that show the dark seas, the bright southern highlands and Tycho's rays, the features that stand out best around full Moon.
At 65× the Moon fills the eyepiece. The nights just before and after full, when the shadows are back, are when it looks its best.
Astro Essentials ND96 Moon Filter
Screws onto any 1.25-inch eyepiece and cuts the dazzle of a bright Moon so the detail comes through.
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