The Full Moon Calendar for the Rest of 2026, and How Gloomia's Orrery Tracks Every Phase
There's a full moon tomorrow night. The Buck Moon peaks on July 29 at 14:36 UTC, and if you step outside on the evening of the 28th, 29th, or 30th, it will look effectively full regardless of which of those three nights you catch. That's an easy thing to miss if nobody tells you, because unlike a meteor shower or an eclipse, a full moon doesn't announce itself with a countdown. It just happens, roughly once a month, whether or not anyone's watching.
This post is a straight, verified calendar of what's left of the Moon's year: the two supermoons still ahead, the ordinary full moons in between, and a planetary opposition that lands right in the middle of the stretch. Along the way it covers what Gloomia's Orrery wallpaper actually does with all of this, since it's the one wallpaper in the catalog built to reflect the real state of the solar system, including the Moon's real phase, every time you glance at your desktop rather than a fixed illustration of what a moon phase generally looks like.
What "full moon" actually means, and why the exact time matters
A full moon isn't a day, it's a moment. It happens when the Moon sits on the exact opposite side of Earth from the Sun, a configuration astronomers call opposition or syzygy depending on context, and the entire Earth-facing side of the Moon is lit at once. That moment has a precise time down to the minute, and it drifts around the clock from month to month because the Moon's orbit doesn't line up neatly with the calendar day. The Buck Moon's exact peak, 14:36 UTC on July 29, happens to fall in the middle of the day for most of North America and Europe, which is why the closest good viewing windows are the evenings on either side of it rather than the daylight hours of the 29th itself.
In practice this precision matters less than it sounds like it should. The Moon's disk looks essentially, indistinguishably full to the eye for roughly a day and a half before and after the true peak, so nobody needs to plan around the exact minute. What the exact time is useful for is comparing dates against other events, like the times listed further down for the October Saturn opposition, and for understanding why a wallpaper like Orrery, which computes the Moon's actual phase rather than stepping through a fixed animation loop, can show a slightly different sliver of illumination depending on exactly when you look.
This week's full moon: the Buck Moon, July 29
July's full moon is traditionally called the Buck Moon, a name tied to the time of year male deer regrow their antlers, and it peaks at 14:36 UTC on July 29, 2026, which is 10:36 a.m. Eastern time. Because the exact peak happens during the day across the Americas, the practical viewing choice is the evening before or after: the Moon rises just before sunset on the 28th looking essentially full, and rises again just after sunset on the 29th sitting almost exactly at its peak from roughly nine to ten hours earlier, still fully round to the eye. Either evening works. There's nothing else astronomically notable stacked on top of this particular full moon, no eclipse, no unusual distance from Earth, just an ordinary, reliable, wholly round Moon climbing the eastern sky as the sun goes down.
The rest of 2026's full moons, one by one
Here's every full moon left on the calendar after the Buck Moon, with verified dates and what makes each one worth a note, if anything does.
Sturgeon Moon, August 28. This is the same full moon covered in depth in the partial lunar eclipse guide, since Earth's shadow covers up to 96 percent of the Moon that night. If you only read one entry on this list closely, make it that one; everything about visibility, timing, and what to expect is worked out there in far more detail than a calendar entry needs.
Harvest Moon, September 26. The Harvest Moon is defined as whichever full moon falls closest to the autumnal equinox, and in 2026 that's the September moon rather than October's, which is why the following month gets a different name instead. There's nothing unusual about the moon itself this time around, just the traditional name tied to its position relative to the equinox and the extra light it once gave farmers finishing a harvest after sunset.
Hunter's Moon, October 26. One lunation after the Harvest Moon, peaking just after midnight Eastern time heading into the 26th. Like the Buck Moon, it's an ordinary full moon with no supermoon or eclipse attached, but it falls only three weeks after a genuinely good night for a completely different object, covered next.
Beaver Moon, November 24. The first of two supermoons closing out the year. At its peak the Moon will sit close enough to perigee, its closest approach to Earth, to appear roughly 6.5 percent larger and 13.5 percent brighter than an average full moon. That's a real, measurable difference, though not one most people would notice without a side-by-side comparison; what it mostly means in practice is a slightly brighter night than usual.
Cold Moon, December 24. The year's biggest and brightest full moon, landing on Christmas Eve. This one sits even closer to perigee than November's, appearing about 8 percent larger and 16 percent brighter than an average full moon, which makes it the clearest supermoon of 2026 to actually notice if you're comparing it against memory of an ordinary month. It closes out a year that started with its own supermoon, the Wolf Moon on January 3, which is covered in passing in the 2026 meteor shower calendar since it landed on the same night as that year's Quadrantids peak.
Supermoon, micromoon: what the words actually describe
Both terms describe the same underlying fact: the Moon's orbit around Earth isn't a circle, it's an ellipse, so its distance from Earth varies by roughly 10 percent over the course of a month. When a full moon happens to fall close to perigee, the near point of that ellipse, it's a supermoon: slightly larger, slightly brighter, genuinely measurable but rarely dramatic to the unaided eye. When a full moon falls close to apogee, the far point, it's a micromoon: slightly smaller and dimmer, the mirror image of the same effect. 2026 already had three of those earlier in the year, the Flower Moon on May 1, a blue micromoon on May 31 that was both the second full moon of that month and the smallest, faintest full moon of the entire year, and the Strawberry Moon on June 29, the second-smallest. Neither supermoons nor micromoons change anything about what Orrery renders beyond the Moon's actual apparent size and brightness at that moment, since the wallpaper is drawing the real geometry rather than a fixed template.
Saturn's best night of the year lands right in the middle of it
Between the Hunter's Moon and the two closing supermoons sits a genuinely good night for a different object entirely: Saturn reaches opposition on October 4, 2026, at 12:21 UTC. At opposition, Earth passes almost directly between a planet and the Sun, which puts that planet at its closest distance, its fully sunlit face, and its brightest and largest appearance of the year, visible all night long from dusk to dawn rather than only briefly after sunset or before sunrise. The rings themselves need a telescope to resolve, Saturn is far enough away that it stays a bright point to the naked eye even at its best, but it's genuinely the night to point any telescope or decent pair of binoculars at it if you own either.
Opposition has nothing to do with the Moon's phase, it's purely about Earth's position relative to Saturn and the Sun, but it's worth flagging here because Orrery tracks the entire solar system at once, not just the Moon. On the night of October 4, the same wallpaper showing a waning gibbous Moon a few days past the Hunter's Moon will also be placing Saturn at its true opposition position, along with every other planet, Pluto, and the dwarf planets, all rendered from the same real orbital mechanics rather than separate, disconnected animations. The deeper mechanics of how that's computed, along with what Constellations and Asteroid Watch do with their own live data, are covered in the real-data astronomy wallpapers guide.
What Orrery is actually doing, and what it isn't
It's worth being precise about what "real Moon phase" means here, since it's easy to overstate. Orrery isn't a planetarium app and it isn't trying to be a lookup tool you'd check before an event; it's a live wallpaper that renders the current state of the solar system, continuously, in the background while you work. It won't tell you the exact UTC time of the next full moon, or let you scrub forward to preview December's supermoon in advance, the way a dedicated astronomy app would. What it does instead is stay quietly correct: open your laptop on any of the dates covered above and the Moon icon in the scene will already show that night's real phase, without you having to check a calendar or set anything up for that specific date. The same is true for Saturn's position on October 4, for retrograde markers on the other planets, and for the optional live NASA/JPL near-Earth asteroid flybys Orrery can also surface, all computed rather than pre-drawn.
That distinction, live computed data versus a fixed illustration, is the same one that separates Orrery, Constellations, and Asteroid Watch from the rest of the catalog. Every other wallpaper Gloomia offers, from Starfield to Wormhole to the audio-reactive set, runs entirely offline and never changes based on the date or your location. Orrery is one of exactly three exceptions, and the only one of the three centered on the Moon and planets rather than stars or near-Earth objects specifically.
Setting it up, and where it sits in the pricing
Orrery needs network permission to pull the orbital data it renders, which Gloomia asks for the first time you select it, the same as it does for Constellations and Asteroid Watch. Once granted, there's nothing else to configure for the Moon phase or planetary positions to be correct; it simply recomputes on its own as time passes, no manual refresh or date entry required.
It isn't part of the free tier. Gloomia's three free-forever wallpapers, Starfield, Planet System, and Hue Drift, cover the calm end of the space collection but not the real-data set. Orrery is unlocked through either the $2.99 yearly plan or the $9.99 lifetime purchase, both of which open the full catalog and share a single checkout page; the full breakdown of what changes between the free tier and Pro is covered in the free versus Pro guide. Either license activates on up to three devices, and Gloomia carries a 30-day refund policy if it doesn't end up being what you wanted, both covered in more detail in the license and refund guide.
Putting the rest of the year on your desktop
None of the dates above require you to do anything to experience them beyond looking up, but if you'd rather have your desktop quietly track along, the practical setup is simple: run Orrery on one display for the Moon and planets, and pair it with Constellations on a second monitor if you want the actual sky for your own coordinates alongside it, an approach covered in more general terms in the dual-monitor setup guide. On a single display, Orrery on its own already carries both pieces of information, the Moon's real phase and where every planet actually sits, without needing a second wallpaper to fill in the rest.
The short version of everything above: there's a full moon tomorrow night, two supermoons and a good Saturn night still ahead before the year ends, and a wallpaper that will already know about all of it without you having to remember any of these dates yourself.
Frequently asked questions
When is the next full moon after today?
The Buck Moon reaches peak illumination on July 29, 2026, at 14:36 UTC (10:36 a.m. EDT). Because the Moon looks essentially full for about a day and a half on either side of that exact moment, it will read as a full moon to the eye on the nights of July 28, 29, and 30.
Does Gloomia's Orrery wallpaper actually show the real Moon phase, or a stylized animation?
It shows the real current Moon phase, computed for the date and time your desktop is actually running, alongside the Sun and the planets at their true current orbital positions, Pluto and the dwarf planets included. It updates on its own as the month goes on. It's one of three wallpapers in the catalog, along with Constellations and Asteroid Watch, that need network access to pull that real data.
How many more supermoons are there in 2026?
Two. The Beaver Moon on November 24 will appear about 6.5 percent larger and 13.5 percent brighter than an average full moon, and the Cold Moon on December 24, Christmas Eve, will be the biggest of the year at roughly 8 percent larger and 16 percent brighter. The year's first supermoon, the Wolf Moon, already happened on January 3.
What's the difference between a supermoon and a micromoon?
Both come down to where the Moon happens to be in its elliptical orbit at the exact moment it turns full. A supermoon falls close to perigee, the Moon's closest approach to Earth, so it looks slightly larger and brighter than average. A micromoon falls close to apogee, the farthest point, so it looks slightly smaller and dimmer. Neither is dramatic to the naked eye on its own; the difference mostly shows up when you compare photos taken at the same zoom months apart.
Is Saturn's October opposition connected to a full moon?
No, it's a separate event that happens to land in the same stretch of the calendar. Saturn reaches opposition, its closest, brightest point of the year, on October 4, 2026, about three weeks before the Hunter's Moon on October 26. Opposition is about Earth passing between Saturn and the Sun, not about the Moon's phase, but Gloomia's Orrery renders both correctly at once since it tracks the whole solar system, not just the Moon.
Is Orrery included in Gloomia's free tier?
No. The free tier covers Starfield, Planet System, and Hue Drift forever at no cost. Orrery is part of the paid catalog, unlocked by either the yearly plan or the lifetime purchase, both covered in the free versus Pro breakdown.