When is the next full moon? October 2024’s Hunter’s Moon is almost here

Skygazers in the UK are in for a treat in the coming weeks, as the ‘Hunter’s Moon‘ is set to light up the skies.

The October full moon is known as the Hunter’s Moon, as it’s the first full moon of autumn in the northern hemisphere.

And, this one will be particularly special, as it’s a supermoon, which only happens around three or four times a year.

Supermoons occur when a full moon is at its closest point in orbit to Earth, therefore appearing even bigger in size – and the Harvest Moon will be the closest and brightest of them all, at 222,095 miles away.

Providing the weather is clear (which is still TBC at this point), everyone in the UK should get a good view of the Hunter’s Moon, as it will hang bright in the sky for three nights.

The Hunter’s Moon is so named as it came to signify the ideal time for tribes to hunt game, as people planned for the cold months ahead.

So, when is Hunter’s moon?

When is the October full moon?

The upcoming October full moon – the Hunter’s Moon – will be in the skies from Thursday, October 17.

In the UK, it’s expected to be most visible at around 5:56pm (because seeing the moon during the day actually isn’t that uncommon, despite seeming odd).

The next full moon will be the Beaver Moon on November 15.

It gets its name as beavers typically start building dams for the winter months in November.

The November full moon is sometimes known as the Frost Moon as winter frosts historically began to take their toll during this time.

This one will also be a supermoon – the last one of the year – and the second to last full moon of the year.

Astrologers also believe this period represents a peak of energy, with different months having different spiritual connotations. June’s, for example, is known as a Strawberry Moon, and is said to encourage expressions of love, purity, and prosperity.

But it turns out it’s not just stories and divination; there is a real correlation between Full Moons and strange behaviour.

Even after this time, well respected medics were convinced that certain illnesses were exacerbated by the Moon’s cycles. In fact, the word lunatic even derives from the Latin lunaticus, meaning ‘of the moon’ or ‘moonstruck’.

In this day and age, though, we’re all about science, requiring incontrovertible empirical evidence to prove how Earth’s natural satellite screws its inhabitants up – and there’s plenty of it.

An entry in the Journal of Criminal Psychology looked at incidences of crime during different lunar phases, finding that incidences of homicides and aggravated assaults spiked massively during a Full Moon.

Sleep is affected too, as proven by a 2013 study which recorded ‘lower sleep quality… less deep slow-wave sleep… and lower evening melatonin levels 0–4 days around the Full Moon compared to the other lunar classes.’ This was even when other factors (such as light and biases about lunar phases) were removed.

Additionally, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr spent many years studying patients with bipolar and concluded that their mood swings directly correlate with the moon.

There’s a lot of conflicting information in the scientific community, with results often being hard to replicate and therefore prove definitively.

Even studies showing clear links between us and that big lad that comes out each night have had to stop short of explaining the underlying reasons behind how the Moon can change our moods.

Some have come to the conclusion that it’s down to the light, but this is often disputed given how much light pollution we already deal with in the modern world.

And while others put it down to gravitational pull and magnetic fields (after all, the Moon controls the seas and we’re mostly made of water) again there’s no evidence to prove this.

There are plenty of things in this world it’s difficult to explain, but if you’re out tonight and see people fighting outside McDonald’s or falling out of taxis, you can probably blame it on the (full) moonlight.

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