There are two supermoons in 2027, and both come early: the Wolf Moon of Friday, January 22, at 7:17 a.m. Eastern Time (12:17 GMT), and the Snow Moon of Saturday, February 20, at 6:23 p.m. Eastern Time (23:23 GMT). The January one is the closest full moon of the year, about 222,230 miles (357,644 km) from Earth.
Supermoon dates and times for 2027
The two supermoons of 2027 are the last two of a series of four that starts in late 2026. The table shows the whole series. Full moon times are from the U.S. Naval Observatory; distances are from the tables of the astronomer Fred Espenak, and the same four dates are listed as supermoons by timeanddate.
| Full moon | US Eastern Time | UK time | Distance from Earth |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 24, 2026 | 9:53 a.m. EST | 14:53 GMT | within the supermoon range |
| December 24, 2026 | December 23, 8:28 p.m. EST | 01:28 GMT | 221,668 miles (356,740 km) |
| January 22, 2027 | 7:17 a.m. EST | 12:17 GMT | 222,230 miles (357,644 km) |
| February 20, 2027 | 6:23 p.m. EST | 23:23 GMT | 225,748 miles (363,306 km) |
After February 20, 2027 the full moons fall farther from Earth for the rest of the year. The next supermoon is the full moon of January 12, 2028.
The dates can shift by a day in other time zones. The December 2026 supermoon, for example, falls on the evening of December 23 in the US and in the early hours of December 24 in the UK.
What is a supermoon?
The Moon's orbit around the Earth is not a circle. Once in each orbit the Moon passes its nearest point, called perigee, and about two weeks later its farthest point, apogee. A supermoon is a full moon that happens close to perigee. The Royal Observatory in Greenwich defines it in just those words: a full Moon that occurs very close to the point in the orbit when the Moon is nearest the Earth.
Because the Moon is nearer, it looks a little larger and brighter than usual.
Why do lists of supermoons disagree?
"Supermoon" is not an official astronomical term, and there is no single agreed rule for how close is close enough. Different publishers draw the line in different places, so one calendar may show two supermoons in a year and another four.
The two sources used here apply almost the same test. Espenak counts a full moon as a supermoon when it is at least 90 percent of the way from its farthest distance to its nearest for that orbit. Timeanddate requires the Moon to be within the nearest 10 percent of the range, and gave 363,974 km (226,163 miles) as the limit for November 2026. An older and simpler rule, still widely quoted, is any full moon closer than 360,000 km (about 223,700 miles).
By the two percentage rules, 2027 has two supermoons. By the 360,000 km rule it has only one, January 22, because the February full moon is about 363,300 km away. If you see "one supermoon in 2027" somewhere, that is the reason.
How much bigger does a supermoon look?
Less than the name suggests. According to timeanddate, a supermoon appears about 6 percent bigger and 16 percent brighter than an average full moon, and the difference is hard to notice in the sky.
What people usually remember is something else: any full moon looks huge when it is low on the horizon, next to trees and buildings. That impression is the same in every month. For a supermoon, as for any full moon, the best view is at moonrise, around sunset.
The January 22 supermoon reaches its exact full phase in the morning, US time, so the Moon looks full on the evenings of both January 21 and January 22. The February 20 one is timed well for the eastern US: the Moon is full at 6:23 p.m., in the early evening.
What else happens on the supermoon dates?
The February 20 supermoon is a busy night. The same full moon passes through the outer edge of Earth's shadow in a faint penumbral lunar eclipse, with the greatest effect at about 6:13 p.m. EST (23:13 GMT). At most, one edge of the Moon looks slightly shaded. It is also the night of the Lantern Festival, which closes the Chinese New Year season.
Traditional names apply as usual. January's supermoon is the Wolf Moon and February's is the Snow Moon. All twelve names are explained on our full moon names page, and the dates of every full moon are in the full moon calendar for 2027.
Is there a "super new moon" in 2027?
The Moon can be near perigee at new moon too. It cannot be seen then, but the closeness matters in one case: a solar eclipse. Timeanddate lists the new moon of August 2, 2027 as a "super new moon." A nearer Moon looks larger and covers the Sun for longer, and the total solar eclipse of that day has up to 6 minutes 23 seconds of totality, the longest of any eclipse left in this century. See our page on the total solar eclipse of August 2, 2027.
What is a micromoon?
The opposite of a supermoon: a full moon near apogee, the far point of the orbit. It looks slightly smaller and dimmer than average. Timeanddate counts three micro full moons in 2027, one more than the supermoons. Like "supermoon," the word is a popular label and not a formal term.
Supermoons and micromoons follow a slow rhythm. The full moons nearest perigee come in a cluster of consecutive months, and the cluster arrives a little later each year. It ran from November 2026 to February 2027, and the next one opens in January 2028.