The Moon is full in the early hours of Monday 26 October 2026, at 01:12 BRT (04:12 UTC). In tropical astrology it stands at 2°46′ Taurus, in opposition to the Sun in Scorpio. In the northern hemisphere this Moon has a popular name, the Hunter’s Moon. Here in Brazil, it rises late on Sunday afternoon, in a spring sky.
This post explains where the name comes from, why the autumn Moon behaves differently in the north and what the sky of Taurus has kept of ancient myths. On the same day, about eight hours later, the Sun squares Pluto. The overview of the month is in October 2026 Sky.
When and where to see it
I calculated the data below with the Skyfield library and JPL’s DE421 ephemeris. The exact opposition between the Sun and the Moon takes place at 01:11:48 BRT (04:11:48 UTC) on 26 October; rounded, that gives 01:12 BRT, the time used in the site’s other posts. At that instant the Moon is at 32.76° ecliptic longitude, that is, 2°46′ Taurus, and the Sun at 2°46′ Scorpio.
The best night to watch is Sunday 25 October. In São Paulo, the Moon rises at 17:57, shortly before sunset at 18:16. In Brasília, it rises at 17:52, and the Sun sets at 18:13. It crosses the sky all night and sets in the morning, after sunrise.
One detail that often causes confusion: although it is in the sign of Taurus, the Moon will be in front of the stars of the constellation of Aries. It is the same difference between tropical sign and constellation that we explain in the post on the Sun in Scorpio.
Where the name “Hunter’s Moon” comes from
The name comes from the rural tradition of the northern hemisphere, especially North America. The Old Farmer’s Almanac explains that the Hunter’s Moon is the Full Moon following the Harvest Moon. After the harvest, the fields are cleared, the leaves have fallen, and the animals, fattened over the summer, are easier to spot. The moonlight, rising soon after sunset, gave hunters more time to track game at night and lay in meat for the winter. NASA, in its October 2026 guide, sums up the same idea.
The Harvest Moon is the Full Moon closest to the September equinox. In 2026, according to the almanac, it was the one on 26 September. That is why October’s Full Moon takes the name Hunter’s Moon.
The almanac also lists names it attributes to Indigenous peoples of North America: Drying Rice Moon (Dakota), Falling Leaves Moon (Anishinaabe) and Migration Moon (Cree). These are the almanac’s labels, not first-hand ethnographic accounts.
The early moonrise that does not happen in Brazil
On average, the Moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. EarthSky explains that, near the September equinox, the Moon’s path makes a shallow angle with the eastern horizon at nightfall in northern mid-latitudes. As a result, on the nights around Full Moon, it rises only about 30 to 35 minutes later each day. For several nights, an almost full Moon comes up soon after sunset.
I calculated the difference with Skyfield for the week of 23 to 28 October 2026. In London, the Moon rises between 13 and 39 minutes later each night; in New York, between 24 and 51; in São Paulo, between 58 and 69; in Brasília, between 54 and 67.
In the southern hemisphere the effect is reversed. EarthSky notes that on these nights the gaps between one moonrise and the next are longer than average. In São Paulo, the Moon rises at 17:57 on the 25th, at 19:03 on the 26th and at 20:11 on the 27th. For us, the effect that gave the Hunter’s Moon its name appears in March and April, near our autumn equinox.
The Bull of Heaven
The constellation of Taurus is one of the oldest in the sky. In Mesopotamia it was called MUL.GU4.AN.NA, “the Bull of Heaven”. The compendium MUL.APIN, edited by Hermann Hunger and David Pingree, places it among the stars in the path of the Moon and also calls it the “Jaw of the Bull” and the “Crown of Anu”.
The same Bull appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In Tablet VI, in Andrew George’s translation, the goddess Ištar offers herself to Gilgamesh, is rejected, and asks her father, Anu, for the Bull of Heaven to punish the hero. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the bull in Uruk, and Enkidu hurls one of the animal’s legs at the goddess. Some scholars read the episode as a reference to the constellation.
The Pleiades and the Hyades
Two families of stars lie in Taurus.
The Pleiades are a cluster on the Bull’s shoulder. In MUL.APIN they are called MUL.MUL, “the Stars”, and the text counts 20 days between the rising of the Pleiades and the rising of the Bull of Heaven. For the Greeks they were the seven daughters of Atlas. Hesiod, in Works and Days, around 700 BC, used the rising of the Pleiades before dawn as the signal for harvest, and their setting as the signal for ploughing.
The Hyades form the “V” of the Bull’s face, beside reddish Aldebaran, which lies in front of them but does not belong to the cluster. Hesiod mentions the Hyades together with the Pleiades and Orion in the setting that marked the time for ploughing.
On the night of 25 October, in São Paulo, the Pleiades rise at 20:20 and Aldebaran at 20:53; in Brasília, at 20:09 and 20:48 (Skyfield, BRT). They climb in the east after the Moon; by the small hours they are high.
Spring in the south
In the north, the Hunter’s Moon lights an autumn of empty fields and preparation for winter. In Brazil, it rises on a spring night, with long days and the start of the rainy season in the Centre-West and South-East of the country. Taurus, an earth sign, appears here in planting and growth; in the north, the same Moon accompanies the harvest stored for the cold.
That is why the site’s October overview prefers to call this lunation the Full Moon in Taurus and keeps the name Hunter’s Moon as a note on its origin.
Questions answered
Why 01:12 and not 01:11?
The exact calculated instant is 01:11:48 BRT. Rounded to the nearest minute, that gives 01:12, the same time used in the site’s other posts.
Is the Hunter’s Moon bigger or brighter?
The name refers to the time of year. In the northern hemisphere, what changes is the time of moonrise, which stays close to sunset for several nights.
Can I see the Full Moon on Monday night?
Yes. On the night of the 26th it still looks full and rises at 19:03 in São Paulo and 18:54 in Brasília (BRT).
Why is the Moon in Taurus but in front of Aries?
Because the sign is counted along the ecliptic from the March equinox, whereas the constellation is a group of stars that, owing to precession, has shifted relative to the signs.
Mini-glossary
- Harvest Moon: the Full Moon closest to the September equinox, in northern-hemisphere folklore.
- Hunter’s Moon: the Full Moon following the Harvest Moon.
- MUL.GU4.AN.NA: “the Bull of Heaven”, the Babylonian name for the constellation of Taurus.
- Pleiades: a star cluster in Taurus, called MUL.MUL in Mesopotamia.
- Hyades: a V-shaped cluster that outlines the Bull’s face.
Bibliography
EARTHSKY. Hunter’s Moon follows the Harvest Moon. Available at: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-hunters-moon/.
GEORGE, Andrew (trans.). The Epic of Gilgamesh. London: Penguin, 1999.
HESIOD. Theogony. Works and Days. Testimonia. Translated by Glenn W. Most. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. (Loeb Classical Library, 57).
HUNGER, Hermann; PINGREE, David. MUL.APIN: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform. Horn: Ferdinand Berger, 1989. (Archiv für Orientforschung, Beiheft 24).
NASA. Disappearing Planets, Dragon Fireballs, Hunter’s Moon Fill October’s Spooky Skies. Watch the Skies, 5 Oct. 2026. Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/watch-the-skies/2026/10/05/disappearing-planets-dragon-fireballs-hunters-moon-fill-octobers-spooky-skies/.
OLD FARMER’S ALMANAC. Full Hunter’s Moon October 2026. Available at: https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-october.
RHODES, Brandon. Skyfield: elegant astronomy for Python. Available at: https://rhodesmill.org/skyfield/. DE421 ephemeris, NASA/JPL.