August’s full moon is the Sturgeon Moon. In 2027 it turns full on Tuesday, August 17 at 3:29 AM Eastern (12:29 AM Pacific), in Aquarius, opposite the Sun in Leo, and it happens inside a penumbral lunar eclipse that the whole of the Americas can watch. It is also one of the farthest, smallest full moons of the year, so don’t expect fireworks: the eclipse is a soft grey shading on one edge, not a red Moon.
It’s named for a fish that takes decades to grow up, and that is the mood too: patience, the first harvest, and the quiet reward for staying the course. Here’s exactly when to see it, what the eclipse will and won’t look like, why it’s called the Sturgeon Moon, and which part of your life this full moon in Aquarius lights up, worked out for every rising sign.
Sturgeon Moon 2027 at a Glance
| Date | Tuesday, August 17, 2027 |
|---|---|
| Exact full moon | 3:29 AM Eastern, 2:29 AM Central, 1:29 AM Mountain, 12:29 AM Pacific |
| Best nights to look | The evenings of August 16 and 17, facing east at moonrise |
| Zodiac sign | Aquarius, about 24 degrees (Sun in Leo) |
| Eclipse | Yes, a penumbral lunar eclipse, 1:24 to 5:03 AM Eastern, visible across the Americas |
| Supermoon | No. About 404,000 km away, less than two days after apogee, so smaller and fainter than average |
| Mercury | Direct |
| Next full moon | The Harvest Moon, September 15, 2027, in Pisces |
When to See the August Full Moon
The Moon is technically full at 3:29 AM Eastern on Tuesday, August 17, which is the middle of the night across the lower 48. That’s fine for your eyes. In our view a full moon looks full on the evening before and the evening after the exact moment too, so you get two good evenings: Monday, August 16 and Tuesday, August 17.
Catch it at moonrise, when it sits low and gold against trees and rooftops and looks far bigger than it is. In New York the Moon rises at 7:35 PM on August 16, eighteen minutes before the 7:53 PM sunset, so it’s already up as the sky turns pink. On August 17 it rises at 7:58 PM, seven minutes after the 7:51 PM sunset. Face east, find a low horizon, and give it twenty minutes. Check your own city’s moonrise, because it shifts from place to place.
Night owls get a bonus. The eclipse runs through the small hours of Tuesday morning, from 1:24 AM to 5:03 AM Eastern, with the deepest shading at about 3:14 AM. On the West Coast that’s 10:24 PM on Monday to 2:03 AM, deepest at 12:14 AM, so you can see the best of it before bed. In New York the Moon doesn’t set until 6:22 AM, so the whole thing plays out with the Moon in the sky.
This one is not a supermoon. The Moon reached apogee, its farthest point from Earth, on August 15, and at the full moon it is still about 404,000 km away. The Moon’s distance from Earth only ranges from about 357,000 to 407,000 km, so this is about as far as it gets. Next to November 2026’s Beaver Moon, at about 367,000 km, this full moon is roughly a tenth smaller across. You won’t notice unless you measure, and the low golden rise more than makes up for it.
Is the August 2027 Full Moon an Eclipse?
Yes, and here is the honest version. It’s a penumbral lunar eclipse, the faint kind. Earth throws two shadows into space: a dark central cone called the umbra and a pale outer fringe called the penumbra. On August 17, 2027 the Moon slides through the penumbra and never touches the umbra at all. NASA gives the umbral magnitude as minus 0.525, which means the Moon stops about half its own width short of the dark shadow.
What you’ll see, if you look at the right time, is a smoky grey shading across the Moon’s southern edge, the lower part as you see it from the US, strongest around 3:14 AM Eastern. At that moment about 55% of the Moon’s width is inside the penumbra. A casual glance may miss it. The Moon will not turn red: only a total lunar eclipse does that, when the whole Moon is inside the umbra and the only light reaching it has been bent and reddened by Earth’s atmosphere.
The timings, from NASA’s eclipse tables:
| Stage | Eastern | Pacific |
|---|---|---|
| Eclipse begins | 1:24 AM, Aug 17 | 10:24 PM, Aug 16 |
| Deepest shading | 3:14 AM | 12:14 AM |
| Eclipse ends | 5:03 AM | 2:03 AM |
Compare last year. The August 28, 2026 Sturgeon Moon was a partial lunar eclipse with an umbral magnitude of 0.93: about 93% of the Moon’s width went into the dark umbra, so a real dark bite appeared on the Moon’s edge. That one was full at 12:18 AM Eastern, in Pisces, and the Americas got the whole show. This year’s is the quiet sibling. Last year’s bit into the Moon’s edge; this one brushes it.
Eclipses come in twos or threes, about two weeks apart. This full moon comes about two weeks after the new moon of Monday, August 2, 2027, which is a total solar eclipse, with 6 minutes 23 seconds of totality along a path that includes Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia. That new moon in Leo is the solar half of the pair. The Sturgeon Moon in Aquarius closes the eclipse season. For astrologers the pair matters more than the magnitude: an eclipse full moon is still an eclipse by the chart, even when the sky barely shows it.
Why Is It Called the Sturgeon Moon?
The name comes from a fish. Lake sturgeon, found in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain and in several rivers, were once far more plentiful than they are now. The Old Farmer’s Almanac records that they were an important staple food for the Native American peoples living around those lakes and were said to be most readily caught during this full moon. Captain Jonathan Carver came across the term for the lunar month during his travels in the 1760s.
The sturgeon itself is worth a minute, because it explains the whole mood of this Moon. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, lake sturgeon trace their origins back at least 150 million years. Adults commonly live 50 to 100 years, the biggest reach 150 and about seven feet long, and they don’t reproduce until they are 10 to 30 years old. Then they spawn only intermittently, not every year. Nothing about a sturgeon is in a hurry. In our view it is the most patient animal in the full moon calendar.
August’s full moon has plenty of other names, and the Old Farmer’s Almanac credits each to the people who used it:
- Black Cherries Moon (Assiniboine).
- Corn Moon (Algonquin, Ojibwe) and Ricing Moon (Anishinaabe).
- Flying Up Moon (Cree), for the young birds ready to fly.
- Harvest Moon (Dakota) and Mountain Shadows Moon (Tlingit).
The Farmers’ Almanac adds the Grain Moon, the Green Corn Moon and the Red Moon, which anyone who has watched an August Moon come up through hazy air will understand. Cherries, corn, rice, grain: many of the names say the same thing in a different accent. The first things are ripe, and it is time to start bringing them in.
Sturgeon Moon Spiritual Meaning
The Sturgeon Moon carries the energy of patience rewarded. It is a harvest full moon, the moment when a few things you planted long ago are finally ready, while most of the field still needs weeks. The lesson is in the fish: the sturgeon doesn’t rush to maturity, and it doesn’t spawn every year. It takes the long view and it lasts.
Spiritually, this full moon asks you three things:
- What is ready now? Not everything. A few things. Name the ones you can actually gather this month, and gather them.
- What needs more time? The Sturgeon Moon is kind to slow work. If something isn’t ripe, leaving it alone is a decision, not a failure.
- What are you being asked to release? Because this one is an eclipse, it comes with an ending. Eclipse full moons tend to close doors that were already swinging shut. If something leaves your life this week, check whether you were still holding it or just still carrying it.
Every full moon is a peak, the point in the cycle where what was started at the new moon becomes visible. For where this peak sits in the whole rhythm, from new to dark and back, see our guide to the spiritual meaning of the moon phases.
The Full Moon in Aquarius: What It Means
Every full moon is a conversation between two opposite signs. In August 2027 the Sun is at about 24 degrees of Leo and the Moon sits directly across from it at about 24 degrees of Aquarius. Both are fixed signs, which means neither one gives ground easily.
Leo is ruled by the Sun: the heart, the individual, the performance, the need to be seen and loved for exactly who you are. Aquarius is ruled by Saturn in the old tradition and Uranus in the modern one: the head, the group, the cause, the need to belong to something bigger and to stay free inside it. Under this full moon those two pull at each other, and most people feel it as me versus we, or heart versus head. Something you want for yourself meets something your people, your team or your community needs, and the full moon makes you choose how to hold both.
Aquarius is cool, clever and a little allergic to drama, so the move this full moon favors is the detached one: step back, look at the whole system, and ask what would actually be fair. Leo supplies the warmth so that fairness doesn’t turn into coldness. The sweet spot is a decision that honors what you need and still leaves the circle intact.
The timing is clean. Mercury is direct, having turned around on July 4, and it doesn’t go retrograde again until October 7. Conversations started under this Moon tend to be heard the way you meant them, which, with an eclipse in play, is a gift.
If your natal Moon is in Aquarius, this full moon lands right on your own emotional wiring, and our guide to the Aquarius Moon explains why you process feelings by thinking about them first. If your Moon is in Leo, the Sun’s side of the axis, the Leo Moon guide explains how a Leo Moon feels things in a big way. Anyone with planets near 24 degrees of Aquarius, Leo, Taurus or Scorpio feels this one the loudest.
What the Aquarius Full Moon Means for Your Sign
- AriesFriends, groups and the goal you share with them peak. Notice who shows up.
- TaurusCareer and reputation hit a visible high point. Your name is in the room; make sure it’s attached to the right thing.
- GeminiA belief, a course or a journey reaches its conclusion. Say what you’ve learned out loud.
- CancerShared money, debts and intimacy come to a head. Have the uncomfortable, honest conversation.
- LeoThis full moon lands opposite your Sun, so a relationship shows you its real shape. Listen more than you perform.
- VirgoWork routines and health ask for a reset. Drop the habit that only looks productive.
- LibraRomance, creativity and children light up. Make something, or make time for someone.
- ScorpioHome and family reach a turning point. Something about where and how you live gets decided.
- SagittariusA message, a sibling or a neighbor matters more than usual. Send the text you keep rewriting.
- CapricornMoney and self worth come into focus. Know your number before anyone asks.
- AquariusThis is your full moon. Something about you, your direction or your body peaks. Let yourself be seen.
- PiscesRest, endings and your private inner life take over. Cancel something and sleep.
These are tendencies, not rules. Your rising sign gives a sharper answer than your Sun sign, and the next section shows why.
Where the August Full Moon Lands in Your Chart
Here is how to find the house this full moon lands in for you. A full moon at 24 degrees of Aquarius lands in a specific house of your chart, and the house tells you which area of life it lights up. Using whole sign houses, where your rising sign is your first house and each sign after it is the next house, the Aquarius full moon falls here:
| Rising sign | House | What it lights up |
|---|---|---|
| Aries | 11th | Friends, groups, hopes |
| Taurus | 10th | Career, reputation |
| Gemini | 9th | Travel, study, beliefs |
| Cancer | 8th | Shared money, intimacy |
| Leo | 7th | Partnerships |
| Virgo | 6th | Work, health, routines |
| Libra | 5th | Romance, creativity, children |
| Scorpio | 4th | Home, family |
| Sagittarius | 3rd | Communication, siblings, local life |
| Capricorn | 2nd | Money, self worth |
| Aquarius | 1st | You, your body, your direction |
| Pisces | 12th | Rest, endings, the inner life |
The working is simple. Count signs from your rising sign, with the rising sign as one. For Aries rising, Aquarius is the eleventh sign along, so it’s the eleventh house. For Scorpio rising, Aquarius is the fourth sign along, so it’s the fourth house. If your chart uses a different house system, the Moon can shift by one house, but whole signs give you the clearest first read.
Don’t know your rising sign? Our free birth chart calculator gives it to you in seconds from your birth time and place, so you can read the Aquarius full moon’s house off the table above.
3 Sturgeon Moon Rituals
- Harvest one thing. On the evening of August 16 or 17, write down everything you started in the first half of the year. Circle the one that is actually ripe, and finish it or claim it before the week is out. Leave the rest in the ground. The sturgeon doesn’t apologize for taking its time.
- The eclipse release. Eclipses close doors, so help this one along. Write the name of a habit, a role or a story about yourself that has already stopped fitting on a slip of paper. Around 3:14 AM Eastern, or before bed if you value sleep, read it once, tear it in half, and put it in the bin. Not the fire, not the sea: the bin. Aquarius likes an unsentimental ending.
- Feed the circle. This is an Aquarius full moon, and Aquarius is the sign of the group. Cook or buy something made of August, corn or cherries or grain, and share it with people who are not your partner or your family: friends, neighbors, a team. Under this Moon, community is the ritual.
Want more ideas? Our guide to full moon rituals has five simple ways to release and recharge under any full moon.
August Full Moons: Past and Next
The August full moon falls in one of two signs. The Sun is in Leo until around August 22 to 23, when it enters Virgo. If the full moon comes before that, the Moon is opposite Leo, in Aquarius. If it comes after, the Moon is opposite Virgo, in Pisces. That’s why last year’s late August full moon was in Pisces and this year’s is back in Aquarius.
| Year | Full moon (Eastern) | Sign |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | August 9, 3:55 AM | Aquarius |
| 2026 | August 28, 12:18 AM | Pisces |
| 2027 | August 17, 3:29 AM | Aquarius |
| 2028 | August 5, 4:10 AM | Aquarius |
The full moon before this one was the Buck Moon on Sunday, July 18, 2027, in Capricorn. The one after is the Harvest Moon on Wednesday, September 15, 2027 at 7:03 PM Eastern, in Pisces. It earns the Harvest name because it is the full moon closest to the September 23 equinox, seven days before it, while October’s full moon falls 22 days after. November’s full moon is the Beaver Moon, and our Beaver Moon guide covers the November 2026 one, in Gemini.
Sturgeon Moon FAQ
When is the August full moon in 2027? The Sturgeon Moon is full on Tuesday, August 17, 2027 at 3:29 AM Eastern, 2:29 AM Central, 1:29 AM Mountain and 12:29 AM Pacific. The best nights to see it are the evenings of August 16 and 17.
What day was the full moon in August? In 2027 the August full moon is on Tuesday, August 17. In 2026 it was on August 28, in Pisces, and in 2025 it was on August 9, in Aquarius. In 2028 it falls on August 5.
What sign is the August 2027 full moon in? Aquarius, at about 24 degrees, opposite the Sun at about 24 degrees of Leo. It’s a full moon about the individual and the group, heart and head, what you need and what your people need.
Is the August 2027 full moon a supermoon? No. It comes less than two days after apogee, the Moon’s farthest point from Earth, at about 404,000 km. That makes it one of the smallest and faintest full moons of 2027, close to the opposite of a supermoon.
Why is the Moon red tonight? Two things turn the Moon red. The first is a total lunar eclipse, when the whole Moon sits inside Earth’s dark shadow and the only light reaching it has been bent through our atmosphere, which strips out the blue. The second is simply a low Moon. Near the horizon you see it through a thick slice of air, which reddens it the same way it reddens a sunset, and dust or pollution deepens the color. The August 17, 2027 eclipse is penumbral, so it will not turn the Moon red. If the Sturgeon Moon looks orange as it rises, that’s the air, and it will fade to white as the Moon climbs.
Which full moon is the most powerful? There is no official ranking. In our view, two kinds stand out: eclipse full moons, when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up close to the nodes, and supermoons, when the Moon is closest to Earth. The 2027 Sturgeon Moon is an eclipse, which makes it one of the year’s turning points by the chart even though the sky barely shows it. For you personally, the most powerful full moon is always the one that lands on your own planets or your rising sign, and the house table above tells you where this one falls.
What does the term “sturgeon moon” mean? It means the August full moon, named for the lake sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, which were a staple food for the Native American peoples of that region and were said to be easiest to catch at this full moon. Captain Jonathan Carver came across the term during his travels in the 1760s.
What should a woman do during a full moon? The same thing anyone should: let something come to a head and deal with it honestly. A full moon is a peak, so finish what’s ready, say what has gone unsaid, and release what has run its course. Practically, that looks like a short written review of the last two weeks, one completed task, one honest conversation and an early night. Our full moon rituals guide has five simple versions. There is nothing here that only applies to women. The Moon doesn’t check.
Why is the sturgeon moon so special? Three reasons in 2027. It’s a lunar eclipse, visible across the whole of the Americas, and the closing half of an eclipse pair with the August 2 total solar eclipse. It’s one of the farthest and smallest full moons of the year. And it is a harvest moon by name, the Old Farmer’s Almanac credits the Dakota with calling it exactly that, the one that asks what is already ripe. Underneath all that, it’s named for a fish that can live a century and takes decades to mature, which makes it the full moon of patience.
When is the next full moon after the Sturgeon Moon? The Harvest Moon, on Wednesday, September 15, 2027 at 7:03 PM Eastern, in Pisces.
“The sturgeon took a hundred years to get here. You can take a week.”
Sources
The facts in this article come from these sources.
- aa.usno.navy.mil, phases
- eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov, LE2027Aug17N.pdf
- eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov, LEdecade2021
- eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov, LE2001 2100
- aa.usno.navy.mil, oneday
- lunaf.com
- nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov, moonfact
- eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov, LE2026Aug28P.pdf
- eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov, SEdecade2021
- en.wikipedia.org, Leo (astrology)
- almanac.com, full moon names
- fws.gov, lake sturgeon acipenser fulvescens
- farmersalmanac.com, full moon names
- en.wikipedia.org, Aquarius (astrology)
- aa.usno.navy.mil, seasons
