The full moon of July, known as the Buck Moon, will rise on Wednesday, July 10, offering a stunning display for stargazers and astrophotographers alike.
A full moon occurs when the moon is positioned opposite the sun in the sky, causing it to appear fully lit from our perspective here on Earth, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
The Buck Moon gets its name from the time of year in North America when male deer, known as bucks, begin to grow out their antlers. It's also sometimes called the 'Thunder Moon', in reference to the seasonal summer storms that often rumble across parts of the U.S. in July. The lunar milestone also occurs less than a week after Earth reached aphelion — the point in its orbit that is most distant from the Sun — making it the farthest full moon from the sun in 2025.
This month's full moon will occur at 4:36 p.m. EDT (2036 GMT) on July 10, but it won't be visible until it rises above the southern horizon at sunset in your local time zone. In New York City, for example, moonrise occurs around 8:53 p.m. local time. Remember: the exact timings for moon phases vary depending on where you are on Earth, so be sure to check out a trusted website such as in-the-sky.org or timeanddate.com to get the correct timings for your locale.
July's full moon will look especially low in the sky after sunset. This is largely down to its proximity to the summer solstice, when the sun is at its highest in the daytime sky, and the moon tracks a correspondingly low path through the night.
This effect is even more extreme in 2025 thanks to a phenomenon known as a 'Major Lunar Standstill'. This occurs every 18.6 years, when the sun's gravity drags the moon's tilted orbit into its most extreme inclination relative to Earth's celestial equator. This causes the moon to appear especially high — or low — in Earth's sky depending on the time of year.
The best time to view the July full moon will be in the hours following moonrise on July 10, when the lunar disk will appear larger than it actually is, thanks to the 'Moon Illusion'.
