Full Moon July 2026: the Buck Moon in Aquarius

Detail	July 2026 full moon
Date	Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Time, US Eastern	10:36 a.m. EDT
Time, UTC	14:36 UTC
Moon sign	Aquarius, about 6 degrees
Sun opposite	Leo
Traditional name	Buck Moon
Eclipse	none
Previous new moon	July 14, 5:44 a.m. EDT, in Cancer
Next full moon	August 28, lunar eclipse in Pisces
All 2026 full moons	Full moon 2026 calendar

Low and warm in the summer sky

A summer full moon stays low. It sits opposite the Sun, and since the summer Sun climbs high, the full Moon takes the low road across the southern sky. Near the horizon it often looks amber, because you see it through more air, and many people find it looks bigger there too. That is the Moon illusion, a trick of perception: the Moon's real size and distance do not change.

If you want to catch the July Moon rising, look east around sunset on the 28th or the 29th. The lunar calendar gives the exact rise and phase for your own town, and it uses the same calculation as the times on this page.

The Buck Moon

In the North American almanac list the July full moon is the Buck Moon, usually explained by male deer growing their new antlers at this time of year. It appears on many calendars, but it is folk custom. The Moon of July 29 was an ordinary full moon in every astronomical sense.

Astronomy first, then the reading

The measured facts: the Moon was about 6 and a half degrees into Aquarius in the tropical zodiac, in exact opposition to the Sun at the same degree of Leo. The Sun had entered Leo on July 22.

Astrology layers its own meaning on top. Leo is read as the sign of the heart, creativity and being seen. Aquarius, the Moon's sign here, stands for friends, communities, ideas and the freedom to be different. A full moon on this axis is traditionally read as a question of how much of yourself to show and how much to give to the group, the friendship or the cause you belong to. The tradition asks you to notice which way you have been leaning, without declaring a winner.

Several planets also changed direction in July. Mercury ended its summer retrograde in Cancer on July 23, six days before this full moon, after turning retrograde on June 29. Neptune had stationed retrograde on July 7, and Saturn followed on July 26, both in Aries. The retrograde planets 2026 overview gives every date.

Your chart and the Buck Moon

Astrologers read this full moon as most personal for anyone with planets around 6 degrees of Aquarius or Leo, or of Taurus or Scorpio, which square that axis. To see where it fell for you, find early Aquarius in your birth chart. The house it occupies is the area of life brought to light, and the house of early Leo shows what pulls the other way.

The cycle it closed had begun at the new moon of July 14 in Cancer, 5:44 a.m. EDT, during the Mercury retrograde. Tradition says things started under a retrograde often take a second pass, and the full moon was a natural point to look at what had survived the review.

Neighbors in the series

The previous full moon was the June 2026 full moon in Capricorn on June 29. The next was the August 2026 full moon, a partial lunar eclipse in Pisces. The full moon 2026 calendar holds the whole year, and what your moon sign means explains the Moon placement in your own chart.