Full Moon in Aquarius

It's an exact moment, not a day: the Moon reaches the point in Aquarius directly opposite the Sun. The next one is on August 17, 2027 at 07:28 UTC, at 24°12′ Aquarius — the table above shows the time in your own zone. It lasts an instant, though the Moon looks full for a night either side.

The lunar month is about 29.5 days, so twelve of them come to about 354 days — roughly eleven days short of a calendar year. The Aquarius Full Moon therefore lands about eleven days earlier each year, then jumps forward a whole lunar month. That's how it drifts from late July to mid-August across the years above, at a new degree each time.

It can be. “Aquarius Full Moon” names the zodiac sign the Moon is in; “Sturgeon Moon” is a seasonal folk name — August's full moon. The same full moon can carry both names, one from astrology and one from tradition: of the years above, the Aquarius Full Moon was the Sturgeon Moon in 2024, 2025, 2027, 2028, 2030 and 2031.

Because a full moon is the Moon opposite the Sun. For the Moon to stand in Aquarius, the Sun has to be across the zodiac in Leo — so the Aquarius Full Moon always comes during Leo season, never during Aquarius season. The New Moon in Aquarius is the one that falls in Aquarius season.

It's the backdrop for everyone. The Moon spends this peak in one house of your chart, lighting up that area of life; which house depends on your rising sign. The table above maps it for all twelve.

Yes — a full moon becomes a lunar eclipse when it falls near one of the Moon's nodes, the points where its path crosses the Sun's. In the years above, one of them is: the penumbral lunar eclipse of August 17, 2027, flagged in the table. The eclipses of this year and the next are on the events calendar.

Almost always one, but not always: between 2016 and 2036, two fall in 2021 and 2032. Twelve lunar months fall about eleven days short of a year, so the dates slide — and now and then two Full Moons in a row both land in Aquarius, a month apart.