The sturgeon moon is August’s full moon. In 2026 it is full on Friday 28 August 2026 at 5:18am BST. In 2026 it coincides with a partial lunar eclipse.
Where the name comes from
Royal Museums Greenwich: North American fishing tribes called August’s full moon the sturgeon moon since the species appeared in number during this month.
Their guide to the full moon names is where that wording comes from, read on 10 September 2026.
Sturgeon Moon is a name for a month, then, not for a kind of moon.
What there is to see
In 2026 the Sturgeon Moon carries a partial lunar eclipse: part of the Moon passes into the Earth’s dark inner shadow, which is visible without any equipment and looks like a bite taken out of one edge. Royal Museums Greenwich publishes a guide to viewing it from the UK.
August is the first month where a British night is genuinely dark again, and the full moon is starting to climb back up. It is also the month of the Perseid meteor shower, and a bright full moon near the peak is the single worst thing for meteor watching. The two are not always close, but in a year when they are, pick one.
What people get wrong about it
That a partial lunar eclipse needs equipment. It does not. The Earth's dark shadow takes a visible bite out of the Moon and the whole thing is comfortable to watch with nothing but eyes, which is not true of a solar eclipse and is the main reason lunar ones are worth the early start.
Sturgeon Moon dates
- 2026: Friday 28 August 2026 at 5:18am (BST)
- 2027: Tuesday 17 August 2027 at 8:29am (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 sturgeon moon is the ninth of the 13 full moons in 2026. The one before it is the Buck Moon on Wednesday 29 July 2026, and the one after is the Harvest Moon on Saturday 26 September 2026.
Full moon number 9 of 13 sits in the calendar with every date and London time. For what the Moon is doing on the nights either side of Friday 28 August 2026 — waxing gibbous before, waning gibbous after — there is the eight phases of the Moon.
Why the date moves every year
The sturgeon moon falls on Friday 28 August 2026 in 2026 and Tuesday 17 August 2027 in 2027 — 354 days apart rather than 365. Twelve lunar cycles fall about eleven days short of the calendar year, which is why August’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 sturgeon moon as such, because there is nothing to draw — the sturgeon moon looks like every other full moon. What can be got wrong is the drawing itself, and sturgeon moon or no sturgeon moon, how to tell an accurate moon phase print is the checklist for that.
Written by Craig Fearn, Aphelion Prints. Last updated .
