{"id":641497,"date":"2026-10-26T04:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641497\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T04:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:54:17","slug":"what-to-expect-from-the-hunters-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641497\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect from the hunter\u2019s moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n October\u2019s full moon will grace the sky this weekend \u2014 and those with a keen eye may also catch a glimpse of Saturn.\n <\/p>\n

\n Just a month after the fall equinox<\/a>, the full moon will rise particularly early, becoming visible at sunset and reaching peak illumination at 12:12 a.m. ET on Monday, October 26, according to EarthSky<\/a>. As night falls on Sunday, Saturn also will appear gold and sit just a few degrees south of the moon.\n <\/p>\n

\n The orb may look more orange as it hangs lower on the horizon. This position causes the moonlight to pass through a denser layer of air, shortening blue and violet wavelengths and making the orange and red ones stand out \u2014 similar to a sunset.\n <\/p>\n

\n Named the hunter\u2019s moon, Native Americans traditionally took advantage of the bright moonlight to hunt for active wildlife and prepare food for the winter. October\u2019s full moon follows September\u2019s harvest moon<\/a>, which marked when farmers would typically harvest their crops.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese names were assigned to the moon because the moon has a meaning,\u201d said Noah Petro, chief of NASA\u2019s Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. \u201cI\u2019d encourage folks, while they\u2019re looking at the moon, to ask, \u2018What does this time of year mean to me?\u2019 Everyone should have a personal connection.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Other monikers for the hunter\u2019s moon are similarly rooted in seasonal traditions. Indigenous tribes adopted names including the drying rice moon, the falling leaves moon and the migrating moon. Some groups also referred to it as the blood moon, a nod to its orange-red hue.\n <\/p>\n

\n The full moon will appear its usual silvery color over the next several months, but viewers who look closely will notice the moon\u2019s face shifting as it rotates, said Petro, who is also a project scientist for the Artemis III mission<\/a>. The moon owes its varying gradation to differences in surface composition and age \u2014 something Petro\u2019s team plans to explore in the Artemis mission slated for June 2027.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen you see color differences on the moon, that\u2019s telling you that something has already happened there \u2014 either the rocks are made of something different, or it\u2019s a younger or older surface,\u201d Petro said. \u201cIt tells you about the geological history.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n For optimal sky-gazing, Petro suggested finding a place free of obstruction from trees or buildings, such as a large field. He added that cold winter nights can make it easier to see the moon, because heat generates turbulence in the atmosphere and makes the sky hazy.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe beauty of the moon is that you don\u2019t need to have the most impressive telescope,\u201d Petro said. \u201cYou need two things: clear eyes and clear skies. And with that, you can fall in love with the moon.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n If the sky isn\u2019t clear Sunday night, the moon will appear full on Saturday and Monday as well.\n <\/p>\n

\n The hunter\u2019s moon comes at the end of a several-day period of the orb approaching and passing Saturn. The ringed planet may be difficult to spot because of the moon\u2019s luminescence.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sky-gazing opportunities aren\u2019t over after this weekend\u2019s dual visual treat. From Monday to Wednesday, the moon will approach, eclipse and pass the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters. Appearing to the unaided eye as a fuzzy collection of six to seven stars, the Pleiades is among the most well-known celestial clusters across the world.\n <\/p>\n

\n The hunter\u2019s moon marks 11 out of 13 full moons in 2026. The final two are both supermoons, meaning the satellite will appear brighter and larger because it is closest to Earth in its orbit.\n <\/p>\n

November 24: beaver moon<\/p>\n

December 23: cold moon<\/p>\n

\n Sign up for CNN\u2019s Wonder Theory science newsletter<\/a>. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October\u2019s full moon will grace the sky this weekend \u2014 and those with a keen eye may also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-641497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}