The full Beaver Moon arrives on Tuesday 24 November 2026, and it is a supermoon — the first of three supermoons in a row that will close out the year and open the next.
The Moon reaches full phase at 9.53 a.m. EST, or 14.53 UTC, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. That moment falls in daylight across North America, so the best views come on the evenings of Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 November, when the nearly full Moon rises in the east around sunset.
Why it looks so big
A supermoon is a full Moon that occurs near perigee, the Moon’s closest point to Earth in its orbit. On 24 November the Moon will be about 360,800 kilometres from Earth, close enough to qualify, and perigee follows about 30 hours later at about 359,300 kilometres.
NASA notes that a supermoon can look up to 14 per cent larger and 30 per cent brighter than a full Moon at its farthest point. In practice, much of the drama comes at moonrise, when the Moon hangs low near the horizon and the Moon illusion makes it look enormous against trees and buildings.
The Beaver Moon name
November’s full Moon is traditionally called the Beaver Moon because beavers are busy building their winter dams and lodges at this time of year, and because fur trappers once set their traps for thick winter pelts in November. The name comes from early American and Indigenous traditions recorded in the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
This Beaver Moon lands two days before Thanksgiving in the United States, which falls on Thursday 26 November, so it will be rising over holiday travel and gatherings across the country.
Three supermoons in a row
The Beaver Moon is the first of three consecutive supermoons, followed by the Cold Moon on 23 to 24 December and the Wolf Moon in January 2027. The December Cold Moon will be the closest full Moon of the year, edging past November’s by about one per cent in apparent size. No telescope is needed for any of them — just a clear eastern horizon at sunset.
Sources: U.S. Naval Observatory via Farmers’ Almanac and EarthSky, Nov 2026; NASA (via JNP Travel); Astronomy.com full Moon calendar.
