5 Reasons to Look Up at the Moon This Year

Perfect Full Moon Year

2025 kicks off with the Wolf Moon on January 13. This year, each calendar month contains exactly one Full Moon, meaning there’s no monthly Blue Moon this year!

Full Moon is the only Moon phase in which the Moon is up all night. Moonrises and moonsets always happen around sunset and sunrise. The great thing about a Full Moon is that it still appears full in the days before and after.

The Crescent Moon and the Planets

In this year’s first four months, the Crescent Moon offers a unique opportunity to observe Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury—and also a very special star cluster.

• If you look southwest to west shortly after sunset around February 1, you’ll spot Venus close to the Crescent Moon, with Saturn close by.
• Around March 2, look to the western horizon just after sunset to find Venus close to the Crescent Moon. As a bonus in the Northern Hemisphere, you might be able to spot Mercury close by.
• After sunset around April 1, look west to find the Pleiades star cluster very close to the Crescent Moon. This cluster is also famously known as the Seven Sisters.
• Looking east, just before sunrise around April 25, Venus and Saturn triangulate a very young Crescent Moon. And if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, you might be able to spot Mercury nearby.

Search for the Moon in our Night Sky Map on the dates above and use the slider to find your best time to see the Crescent Moon, planets, and stars align. The orientation of the planets, stars, and the Moon varies slightly depending on your location on Earth.

Four Eclipses in 2025

There are generally two eclipse seasons every year, just under six months apart. This year, they are in March and September, and both will favor lunar eclipses.

A total lunar eclipse on March 13–14 will be followed two weeks later by a partial solar eclipse across an area of North America and Europe on March 29.

Six months after that, there will be another total lunar eclipse on September 7–8, paired with a partial solar eclipse across a southern region of the globe on September 21.

A lunar eclipse happens when the Full Moon is on the opposite side of Earth to the Sun, and a solar eclipse occurs when the New Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun.

Watch eclipses LIVE on timeanddate.com

Black Moon Favors the Stars

Although it is a “perfect” year for Full Moons, we will get an extra New Moon between the June solstice and the September equinox—giving us a Black Moon.

There are two main definitions of a Black Moon: monthly and seasonal. The Black Moon on August 23, 2025 (August 22 in western time zones) falls under the seasonal definition.

A seasonal Black Moon is the third New Moon in a season of four New Moons, while a monthly Black Moon is defined as the second New Moon in a single calendar month with two New Moons. Both definitions are the counterpart to the Blue Moon definitions.

Like any other New Moon, Black Moons are invisible in the sky. This is because the Moon is between Earth and the Sun in its orbit at this Moon phase, making it a perfect time to look at the stars as the sky will be nice and dark. Also, you might be lucky and catch the very final shooting stars of the Perseid meteor shower while you’re out.

Last Two Full Moons of 2025 are Supermoons

The Full Moons on November 5 and December 4 are Super Full Moons, meaning they will be closer to Earth than a “normal” Full Moon.

Without measuring brightness and size, it can be difficult to spot the difference between a “normal” Full Moon and a Super Full Moon as it’s only 6%–7% bigger than an average Full Moon (in years 1550–2650).

However, whenever we see the Full Moon close to the horizon, our brains trick us into thinking it is much bigger than it actually is. This is known as the Moon illusion.