August’s full moon, often known as the ‘Sturgeon Moon’ made a splash when it leapt above the southern horizon on Aug. 9 earlier this week, illuminating the summer time sky mere days earlier than the height of the Perseid meteor bathe.
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The Sturgeon Moon will get its identify from the massive lake fish that had been as soon as ample round this time of 12 months and which served as an vital supply of meals for a number of Native American tribes. It’s additionally generally often known as the ‘Red Moon’, on account of the ruddy hue it has been recognized to undertake in the summertime haze, whereas the Anishinaabe individuals of the Great Lakes knew it because the ‘Ricing Moon’ and used it as an indication that it was time to usher in the harvest.
Some photographers aimed their lenses at the moon during moonrise, capturing its dramatic yellow-orange glow as Earth’s atmosphere scattered the bluer wavelengths of sunlight in a process known as Rayleigh Scattering. Others snapped the moon as it tracked a low path through the summer sky, recording spectacular detail on the lunar surface, while lining up impressive shots that blended the ancient and the new in a single frame.
Read on to see a selection of some of the best August full moon photos from around the world.
The August 2025 full Sturgeon Moon in pictures
This stunning view of the full Sturgeon Moon suspended between New York’s iconic skyscrapers was taken by Nazli Zeynep Karabulut on the night of Aug. 9, as the lunar disk rose over New York and was temporarily speared by the point of the Empire State Building.
Ismael Adnan Yaqoob captured the moon thousands of miles from New York as it drifted close to the lights of an amusement park in the city of Mosul, Iraq on the same night (Aug. 9).
This stunningly detailed high-contrast view of the lunar disk was captured on Aug. 9 by Tayfun Coskun as the moon hung above Mt. Hamilton in San Jose, California. Dark lunar seas can be seen scarring the lunar surface alongside sweeping mountain ranges and prominent impact sites, including the majestic form of Tycho Crater, which dominates the lower region of the moon’s disk.
Photographer Riccardo De Luca captured a beautiful shot of the orange-red Sturgeon Moon as it rose above the historic Colosseum in Rome, with the towering Arch of Titus illuminated to the right of the image.
Isa Terli’s moody composition featured a potent mix of the old and the new by capturing the red form of the rising Sturgeon Moon as it hung between the supports of the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey.
This image of the yellow full moon rising near the ancient temple of Poseidon in southern Greece was captured on Aug. 9, by photographer Costas Baltas, close to the city of Athens.
A spotlight shone from the tip of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, appears to pick out the orange form of the rising Sturgeon Moon in this dramatic composition by Mustafa Yalcin, also taken on Aug. 9.
Lorenzo Di Cola snapped a shot of the lunar disk rising over the ruins of Rocca Calascio on Aug. 8, in the runup to the full moon from the Province of L’Aquila, Abruzzo in Italy.
Photographer Yasin Akgul captured the Sturgeon Moon warped by atmospheric disturbance on Aug. 9, as it loomed above the rooftops of Istanbul, Turkey, close to the famous Galata Tower.
Faisal Bashir took a stunningly detailed shot of the lunar disk on Aug. 8, ahead of the full moon phase, framed by the delicate silhouettes of overhanging leaves.
Photographer Max Guliani additionally posted a collection of spectacular moonrise pictures to his X account, exhibiting the total lunar disk looming giant between the enduring skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan.
Gary Hershorn, in the meantime, lined up a slew of pictures that featured the total moon resplendent alongside the Statue of Liberty, together with one well-timed composition that captured a passenger jet traversing the lunar disk.
While there is no doubt that August’s Sturgeon Moon placed on a dramatic present, subsequent month’s full moon section is ready to be much more spectacular. Sept. 7-8 will see a complete lunar eclipse sweep over the floor of Earth’s pure satellite tv for pc, quickly reworking it right into a purple “blood moon” for skywatchers in Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa. You can sustain with all of the lunar eclipse motion with our lunar eclipse stay weblog.
Editor’s Note: If you seize a picture of the total Sturgeon Moon and wish to share it with Space.com’s readers, then please ship your photograph(s), feedback, and your identify and site to spacephotos@house.com.