When is the beaver moon? November 2025 supermoon is biggest, brightest

November’s full moon will be particularly special this year: It will appear as the biggest and brightest full moon of 2025.

Known as the beaver moon, it will peak early Wednesday morning. It’s also the second of four consecutive supermoons — which means it can appear around 14% larger and 30% brighter than the smallest and dimmest full moon. Of course, the moon itself doesn’t change in size and brightness; rather, our perceptions of the moon vary based on its distance from Earth.

The beaver moon will be the closest to Earth in 2025, at around 221,817 miles away according to EarthSky. This is roughly 2,782 miles closer than October’s harvest moon, the second-largest and -brightest of the year.

Here’s what to know about the beaver moon.

The November moon will peak in fullness at 7:19 a.m. CST on Wednesday, Nov. 5. It will rise low on the east-southeast horizon and set in the west-southwest.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac, a reference book published since the 18th century, names the different full moons from names used by Native American, colonial American and European sources, so their meanings derive from characteristics of the northern hemisphere. 

In November, the beaver moon was so-named because it marks the time when beavers are preparing their homes for winter and also because it was the best time to set beaver traps before water started freezing.

Indeed, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the November moon was named the beaver moon partly because “for both the colonists and the Algonquin tribes, this was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs.”

Different Native American tribes have other names for the beaver moon:

• deer rutting moon: Cheyenne of the Great Plains
• panther moon: Choctaw of the Southeastern region
• fledgling hawk moon: Hopi of the Southwest
• turkey moon: Potawatomi of the Great Lakes region
• moon of much white frost on grass: Algonquin of the Ottawa River region
• frost moon: Assiniboine of the Northern Plains and Creek of the Southeast  

When the moon’s orbit brings it closer to Earth than usual, the cosmic combo is called a supermoon. A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest to Earth at the same time the moon is full.

This happens when the full moon falls at perigee – its closest point to Earth in its orbit. Perigee is when the moon is 224,895 miles from Earth and appears bigger and brighter than a normal full moon.

“Different publications use slightly different thresholds for deciding when a full moon is close enough to the Earth to qualify as a supermoon,” NASA says. “Because the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circle, the moon is sometimes closer to the Earth than at other times during its orbit.”

On average, supermoons appear about 7% bigger and about 15% brighter than a typical full moon.

When the moon reaches apogee, it’s at its farthest from Earth, a distance of 252,595 miles. If a full moon occurs while the moon is at apogee, it is called a micromoon.

The beaver moon is the second of three consecutive supermoons in 2025.

The fourth consecutive supermoon will appear in January 2026.

The last full moon of the year will peak on Thursday, Dec. 15. The December full moon is known as the cold moon because it is the time of the year when it starts getting cold outside.

It will also be the last supermoon of 2025.

Here’s a look back on this year’s full moons and their popular names, according to Sky at Night Magazine:

• Jan. 13: wolf moon
• Feb. 12: snow moon
• March 14: worm moon
• April 13: pink moon
• May 12: flower moon
• June 11: strawberry moon
• July 10: buck moon
• Aug. 9: sturgeon moon
• Sept. 7: corn moon
• Oct. 7: hunter’s moon/harvest moon and supermoon
• Nov. 5: beaver moon and supermoon
• Dec. 4: cold moon and supermoon

Supermoons only occur about three or four times a year. The fourth consecutive supermoon, after the last three in 2025, will appear in January as the wolf moon. Two more supermoons will appear in the last two months of 2026, for a total of three for the year.

• Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026
• Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2026
• Thursday, Dec. 24, 2026