October’s Full Moon | The Hunter’s Moon

The month of October’s Full Moon is called the Hunter’s Moon. It is also sometimes called the “Blood Moon” or the “Sanguine Moon”. It is the first Full Moon after the Harvest Moon (the Full Moon nearest the Autumnal equinox) and it gets its name from hunters who tracked and killed their prey by the autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the winter ahead.

The full moons of September, October and November, as seen from the northern hemisphere (which correspond to the full moons of March, April and May as seen from the southern hemisphere) are well known in the folklore of the sky.

In general, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day as it moves in orbit around Earth (all full moons rise around the time of sunset). What makes the Harvest Moon and Hunter’s Moon special (as seen from the northern hemisphere) is that the time of moonrise between successive evenings is shorter than usual. The moon rises approximately 30 minutes later, from one night to the next, as seen from about 40 degrees N. latitude, for several evenings around the full Hunter’s or Harvest Moons.

Thus there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise around the time of these full moons. In times past, this feature of these autumn moons was said to help hunters tracking their prey (or, in the case of the Harvest Moon, farmers working in the fields). They could continue tracking their prey (or bringing in their crops) by moonlight even when the sun had gone down. Hence the name Hunter’s Moon.

The reason for the shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moon rises around the time of the Harvest and Hunter’s Moon is that the orbit of the Moon makes a narrow angle with respect to the horizon in the evening in autumn leading the Moon to higher positions in the sky each successive day.

Check out this link for a more in-depth visual of the different Moon Phases.

To make sure you don’t miss the next full Moon, see our Full Moon Dates and Times chart.