Skywatchers will be treated to a spectacular sight this week as the Cold Supermoon, the second largest full moon of 2025, rises in the east at dusk, appearing higher in the night sky than any other full moon this year.
The official full moon will be Thursday (December 4th) at 6:14pm EST, when the moon will rise in the eastern constellation of Taurus. Although the moon is technically full at certain moments, it’s most visually impressive at moonrise in your location, when the moon appears at its largest near the horizon.
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December’s cold moon always climbs higher in the sky than any other full moon of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, as the winter solstice approaches on December 21st, the sun appears at its lowest point in the sky during the day. In contrast, a full moon, by definition, is on the opposite side of the sun and is highest at night.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, Native American names for December’s full moon include “Frost Exploding Trees Moon (Cree),” “Oglala Moon”, “Dakota Moon”, “Winter Maker Moon” (Western Abenaki), “Cold Moon” (Mohawk), and “Long Night Moon” (Mohawk). The latter comes from the fact that this full moon is close to the winter solstice, which occurs on December 21st this year. The Old English and Anglo-Saxon names of December’s full moon, according to time and date, are Moon Before Yule and Long Night Moon.
The next full moon will be the Wolf Moon on January 3, 2026, making it the fourth and final supermoon in a row. A blue moon (the second full moon in a calendar month) will occur in May 2026, making this the first of 13 full moons that will occur in 2026.
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