Hunter's Moon
The Hunter's Moon is the first full moon after the Harvest Moon, and the Harvest Moon is the full moon nearest the September equinox. So it is fixed by the equinox, not by October: most years it falls in October, and now and then in early November. It inherits a weaker version of the Harvest Moon's effect — successive moonrises still bunched closer together than average — so it too brings several evenings of bright light soon after sunset. The almanac explanation is the obvious one: with the fields reaped and the deer fattened, that light was for hunting. The name says nothing about colour. A Hunter's Moon looks like any other full moon, and orange only when it is low, as every moon is.
Where the name comes from
The name is English and old: the earliest use the Oxford English Dictionary cites is from 1710. The other names often listed with it — Travel Moon, Dying Grass Moon, Sanguine or Blood Moon — come by a different route. The Maine Farmer's Almanac began publishing "Native American" names for the full moons in the 1930s, and gave these for October, attributed to Algonquin peoples of the northeastern United States. That attribution is the almanac's, and nothing here can check it. Sanguine and Blood are usually explained by the hunting season or the reddening leaves, not by the Moon; "blood moon" is also used, separately, for a total eclipse of the Moon.
Also called Travel Moon, Dying Grass Moon, Sanguine Moon, Blood Moon.
NASA, Full Moon Guide: October–November 2021, by Gordon Johnston (archived copy) (opens in a new tab)
- NASA, May 2022: The Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon, by Gordon Johnston (archived copy) (opens in a new tab) for Sanguine and Blood Moon explained by hunting or reddening leaves
When it falls
- 26 October 2026, about 04:15 UTC
- 15 October 2027, about 13:50 UTC
- 2 November 2028, about 09:20 UTC
- 22 October 2029, about 09:30 UTC
The exact moment of full moon, computed on this site and rounded to five minutes. Close to midnight UTC the date where you are can be the day before or after.