The buck moon is July’s full moon. The next one is full on Sunday 18 July 2027 at 4:45pm BST.
What is the July full moon called?
The Buck Moon. In the words of Royal Museums Greenwich: Male deer, which shed their antlers every year, begin to regrow them in July, hence the Native American name for July’s full moon.
July nights in the UK are short but not empty: this is the season for noctilucent clouds, thin electric-blue clouds lit by the Sun from below the northern horizon long after sunset.
Watching the buck moon from the UK
Another low summer full moon from the UK, up for a short night and often coloured by the horizon. In 2026 it is full mid-afternoon, so the nights either side are what you watch.
July nights are short and rarely fully dark in the north of the UK, and the full moon stays low. The compensation is warmth and the chance of steady air after a hot day, which is when a low moon shimmers least. Look east soon after sunset. Don't wait for a dark sky; it isn't coming.
How high the buck moon climbs
From Greenwich on the night of 18 to 19 July 2027, 9 of 2027’s full moons climb higher than the buck moon and 2 stay lower.
| Buck Moon rises | 9:18pm, south-east |
|---|---|
| Buck Moon at its highest | 1:23am, 17° up, due south |
| Buck Moon sets | 5:36am, south-west |
| Time above the horizon | 8 hours for the Buck Moon |
| Sun at 1:23am | 18° below the horizon |
Also in the July sky
The Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair is high overhead by late evening. The Perseid meteor shower starts in mid-July, building slowly towards its August peak.
For July’s meteor dates and how much the Moon gets in the way, see UK meteor showers and the Moon.
What people get wrong about the buck moon
That the antlers are the point. The name records what deer were doing in July in North America, not anything about the Moon. It is also the clearest example of these names being a farming calendar, not an astronomical one: nothing in the sky marks July out.
Buck Moon dates, London time
- 2026: Wednesday 29 July 2026 at 3:36pm (BST)
- 2027: Sunday 18 July 2027 at 4:45pm (BST)
The 2026 buck moon time is from NASA and the Royal Observatory; 2027 is NASA only until the Observatory publishes.
In 2027 the buck moon falls on Sunday 18 July 2027. Why named full moons drift.
The buck moon in the sequence
In 2026 the buck moon is the eighth of 13 full moons. It comes after the Strawberry Moon (Tuesday 30 June 2026), and the Sturgeon Moon follows it on Friday 28 August 2026. On the nights either side of the buck moon the Moon isn’t quite full: it’s a waxing, then a waning, gibbous, and the eight phases of the Moon explains both.
Any moon print can be checked the same way, buck moon or not: how to tell an accurate moon phase print.
Written by Craig Fearn, Aphelion Prints. Last updated .
