The October Hunter Moon reaches peak illumination at 12:11 a.m. Monday, but skywatchers in Boston should get their best look near sunset on Sunday, around 5:45 p.m. That timing gives viewers a short window for the moon’s low, orange-reddish rise in the east.
Marianne Mizera wrote that the moon should be well viewed at sunset Sunday in Boston, when the bright disk sits low enough to look larger and more colorful than it does later in the night. The moon will remain full through Tuesday as it moves into its waning gibbous phase.
Boston and New England skies
Clear skies are forecast across New England, and that should help make the weekend view easier to catch. The lingering Orionid meteor showers may also add activity to the night sky, even though the showers peaked last week.
That peak came after cloudy skies blocked much of the view in the Northeast. The Orionids are produced by dust and debris shed by Halley’s Comet, so a clearer night now could give viewers a second chance to see part of the same shower trail.
Hunter’s Moon timing
October’s full moon is traditionally known as the Hunter’s Moon. The Old Farmer’s Almanac says, “The bright Moon rising soon after sunset provided extra evening light, allowing hunters to track game longer into the night,” a reference to the seasonal shift after September’s Harvest Moon.
Indigenous peoples of North America have also called this moon Falling Leaves Moon, Freezing Moon, Migrating Moon, and Drying Rice Moon. The name varies, but the viewing pattern is the same: sunset gives the sharpest contrast, while midnight marks the exact peak.
Next full moons in 2026
The next two full moons, the Beaver Moon and the Cold Moon, will be back-to-back supermoons. NASA says a supermoon is when a full moon is at or near its closest approach to Earth, called perigee, during its 27-day elliptical orbit, and it can appear about 30 percent brighter and up to 14 percent larger than the faintest moon of the year.
Those final supermoons for 2026 arrive on Tuesday, Nov. 24, and on Dec. 23. For Boston-area viewers, the immediate target is simpler: catch the Moon at sunset on Sunday, before the light fades and the sky shifts toward midnight.
