Are you ready for one of the celestial highlights of 2025? The first full moon of the year, the Wolf Moon, will do something extraordinary, as seen across North America.
Although it will be officially full at 5:26 p.m. EST on Monday, Jan. 13, the full moon will be best seen rising in the east at dusk on Tuesday, Jan. 14 at moonrise where you are. It will be in the constellation Cancer and hang below a bright planet, Mars, which will have a distinctly golden glow. That will be the best time to watch it rise, because on Monday, it will appear so soon after sunset that the sky will still be too bright to fully appreciate the full moon.
However, it will certainly be worth watching the moon overnight between Monday and Tuesday. According to In The Sky, between 8:44 p.m. EST on Jan. 13 and 12:52 a.m. EST on Jan. 14, the Wolf Moon will appear to move across and block Mars for about an hour, depending on your exact location.
Although it will be possible to see the unusual event with the naked eye, a pair of binoculars or a small beginner telescope will give you a terrific close-up of Mars as it disappears behind the southern limb of the moon and then reappears above its northern limb.
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Remarkably, the rare event will occur just a few days before Mars reaches its most prominent and brightest for 26 months. Its annual opposition will occur on Thursday, Jan. 16 as it aligns with Earth and the sun, with its disk being 100%-lit as seen from Earth. Since Earth takes 365 days to orbit the sun and Mars takes 687 Earth days, Earth passes between Mars and the sun every 789 days.
The Wolf Moon gets its name from the howling wolves in the early part of the year, according to Timeanddate.com, with other names including the Stay Home Moon, Quiet Moon, Severe Moon and Center Moon. Other Native American names for January's moon include the Cold Moon, Frost Exploding Moon, Freeze Up Moon, Severe Moon, Hard Moon, Canada Goose Moon, Great Moon, Greetings Moon and Spirit Moon, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac.
The full moon after the Wolf Moon will be the Snow Moon, which will turn full on Feb. 12.
