Unlocking the Secrets to Witnessing the Spectacular Full ‘Wolf’ Moon of 2025

Subscribe to our complimentary Health Check email for exclusive insights on the week’s health developments

Receive our free Health Check email

Get our free Health Check email

Astronomers won’t have to anticipate too long into the new year to greet the Wolf Moon.

The “Wolf” Moon, the popularly known title for the first full moon of the year, is projected for January 13, achieving maximum brightness at 5:27 p.m. Eastern time, as stated by the Farmer’s Almanac.

The etymology of the term has several interpretations.

Various Indigenous nations in North America employed wolf-related terms to depict winter moons, such as the Cheyenne calling the moons of November and December “when wolves run together” and the Sioux using a phrase with the same meaning for January’s moon, per Western Washington University.

Celtic and Old English mythology arrived at a similar designation for the early year full moon during the time when wolves would have been heard howling at night in both Britain and North America, where descendants of those cultures resided.

“The January Full Moon is referred to as the Wolf Moon by some European traditions, owing to the haunting calls of wolves as they seek food in the cold of winter,” Dr. Darren Baskill, an astrophysicist from the University of Sussex, informed BBC Science Focus this year.

view image in gallery

“Wolves were exterminated in the UK merely 250 years ago, marking Britain’s final apex predator to vanish,” he further commented. “However, their legacy endures today through the oral history of Full Moon names.”

The year 2024 hosted a series of remarkable lunar phenomena, including supermoons, during which new or full moons are within 90 percent of their closest approach to Earth, appearing larger and brighter than usual.

In September, astronomy enthusiasts enjoyed a rare partial eclipse of a supermoon.

view image in gallery

In October, an exceptionally large, orange-hued Hunter’s Moon ascended in the sky. In the subsequent month, another supermoon, the Beaver Moon, became observable – the fourth supermoon of the year.

The concluding full moon of the year, the Cold Moon, rose in the early hours of December 15.

When observing a supermoon, or any full moon, specialists suggest locating an area distant from streetlights and other sources of light pollution for a better view.

To capture a photograph of one, some advise framing the orb with a recognizable landmark.

“Consider how to be imaginative – that means connecting it with a land-based object,” NASA senior photographer Bill Ingalls once remarked to The Independent. “It can be a local landmark or anything to lend your photo a sense of place.”