The buck moon is July’s full moon. In 2026 it is full on Wednesday 29 July 2026 at 3:36pm BST.
Where the name comes from
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.
Their guide to the full moon names is where that wording comes from, read on 10 September 2026.
Buck Moon is a name for a month, then, not for a kind of moon.
What there is to see
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 actually 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 rather than waiting for a dark sky that is not coming.
What people get wrong about it
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 rather than an astronomical one: nothing in the sky marks July out.
Buck Moon dates
- 2026: Wednesday 29 July 2026 at 3:36pm (BST)
- 2027: Sunday 18 July 2027 at 4:45pm (BST)
Times London local, from NASA. The 2027 row carries one source, not two. How these dates were checked.
Where this sits in the year
The buck moon is the eighth of the 13 full moons in 2026. The one before it is the Strawberry Moon on Tuesday 30 June 2026, and the one after is the Sturgeon Moon on Friday 28 August 2026.
Full moon number 8 of 13 sits in the calendar with every date and London time. For what the Moon is doing on the nights either side of Wednesday 29 July 2026 — waxing gibbous before, waning gibbous after — there is the eight phases of the Moon.
Why the date moves every year
The buck moon falls on Wednesday 29 July 2026 in 2026 and Sunday 18 July 2027 in 2027 — 354 days apart rather than 365. Twelve lunar cycles fall about eleven days short of the calendar year, which is why July’s moon keeps sliding earlier; run that far enough and a thirteenth moon has to be squeezed in, as 2026 does in May.
Our bias, stated: we sell moon and lunar wall art. None of it is a buck moon as such, because there is nothing to draw — the buck moon looks like every other full moon. What can be got wrong is the drawing itself, and buck moon or no buck moon, how to tell an accurate moon phase print is the checklist for that.
Written by Craig Fearn, Aphelion Prints. Last updated .
