Moon phases 2038: 12 full moons and 13 new moons

2038 has 12 full moons, 13 new moons, 12 first quarters and 12 last quarters, 49 phases in all. The first full moon falls on Thursday, 21 January 2038 at 03:59 UTC and the last on 11 December 2038 at 17:30 UTC.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon of 2038 falls on Thursday, 21 January 2038 at 03:59 UTC, which is 4,138 days away. Traditionally it is called the Wolf Moon, a folk name rather than an astronomical one. The moon is only exactly full for a moment, when it sits opposite the Sun as seen from Earth. Either side of that instant it looks full to the eye for roughly a night, which is why almanacs and local calendars often disagree by a day.

How many full moons are there in 2038?

12. There is no blue moon in 2038. Every calendar month holds exactly one full moon, so the year totals 12, one for each month. 2038 also holds a black moon: August has two new moons, which is the same doubling-up seen from the other end of the cycle. The spacing between one full moon and the next is not fixed either: across 2038 the shortest gap is 29.32 days and the longest is 29.79 days, against a mean synodic month of 29.531 days. The moon's orbit is an ellipse and the Earth is moving around the Sun at the same time, so the interval breathes by several hours either way.

All 12 full moons of 2038

Traditional names are English folk names attached to the month, not to the moon itself, so they shift when a month carries two full moons.

When is the Harvest Moon in 2038?

The Harvest Moon is the full moon nearest the September equinox, not simply the September full moon, so in some years it lands in October. In 2038 the equinox falls at Wednesday, 22 September 2038 at 22:02 UTC and the nearest full moon is Monday, 13 September 2038 at 12:24 UTC, 9.40 days before it. That is the one to call the Harvest Moon in 2038.

What are all the moon phase dates in 2038?

The table below lists every one of the 49 phases in order, with the exact UTC instant. New moon is the moment the moon passes between Earth and Sun; full moon is the opposite alignment; the quarters are the halfway points, when exactly half the lit face is turned towards us.

How are moon phase times calculated?

These instants come from the lunation series in chapter 49 of Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms. The method starts from a mean lunation counted from January 2000, then applies twenty-five periodic corrections built from the moon's mean anomaly, the Sun's mean anomaly and the moon's argument of latitude, followed by fourteen smaller planetary terms. The result is in Dynamical Time, so a delta T correction of roughly seventy seconds is subtracted to give the UT times shown here. Agreement with published tables across 2038 and the surrounding years is within half a minute.

Questions

How many full moons are in 2038?

12, the first on 21 January 2038 and the last on 11 December 2038.

Is there a blue moon in 2038?

No. Every month of 2038 has exactly one full moon.

When is the Harvest Moon in 2038?

13 September 2038, the full moon nearest the September equinox.

Are these times local?

No. Every time on this page is UTC. Convert to your own clock before planning around it.

Moon phases in other years

More for 2038

Day of the year · Event countdowns · When is it? · Date calculator