The strawberry moon is June’s full moon. The next one is full on Saturday 19 June 2027 at 1:44am BST.
What is the June full moon called?
The Strawberry Moon. In the words of Royal Museums Greenwich: The harvesting of strawberries in June gives that month’s full moon its name.
In Europe the same moon has also been called the Rose Moon. Being the full moon nearest the summer solstice, it rides lower across the UK sky than any other.
Watching the strawberry moon from the UK
June gives the lowest full moon of the year from the UK, and the shortest window of proper darkness to see it in. It sits close to the horizon all night, which is exactly the situation that makes a moon look large and orange.
This is the lowest full moon of the British year, and the one people most often photograph, because it hangs on the horizon and never climbs high. The colour is the atmosphere doing what it does to any low light source, the same physics that reddens a sunset. It is real, it is not seasonal, and it is not the strawberries.
How high the strawberry moon climbs
From Greenwich on the night of 18 to 19 June 2027, 11 of 2027’s full moons climb higher than the strawberry moon and 0 stay lower. From Edinburgh, four degrees further north, it climbs about four degrees less.
| Strawberry Moon rises | 9:35pm, south-east |
|---|---|
| Strawberry Moon at its highest | 12:59am, 11° up, due south |
| Strawberry Moon sets | 4:24am, south-west |
| Time above the horizon | 7 hours for the Strawberry Moon |
| Sun at 12:59am | 15° below the horizon |
Also in the June sky
The summer solstice falls around 21 June, the shortest night of the year. Noctilucent clouds are at their most likely in late June, low in the northern sky around midnight.
For June’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 strawberry moon
That the orange colour is something to do with June. It is not. Any moon that low looks that colour, and a low winter moon does the same. What is special about June is that the Moon cannot get high, so it stays in the colour-shifting part of the sky all night.
Strawberry Moon dates, London time
- 2026: Tuesday 30 June 2026 at 12:57am (BST)
- 2027: Saturday 19 June 2027 at 1:44am (BST)
The 2026 strawberry moon time is from NASA and the Royal Observatory; 2027 is NASA only until the Observatory publishes.
In 2027 the strawberry moon falls on Saturday 19 June 2027. Why named full moons drift.
The strawberry moon in the sequence
In 2026 the strawberry moon is the seventh of 13 full moons. It comes after the Blue Moon (Sunday 31 May 2026), and the Buck Moon follows it on Wednesday 29 July 2026. On the nights either side of the strawberry 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, strawberry moon or not: how to tell an accurate moon phase print.
Written by Craig Fearn, Aphelion Prints. Last updated .
