Strawberry Moon Rises June 30 as 2026’s 7th Full Moon

Q: Why will this week's 'micro' moon appear smaller yet glow with a unique copper-orange color near the horizon?

It will look smaller because this week’s Strawberry Moon is a micromoon, meaning the full moon occurs near apogee, the farthest point in the Moon’s elliptical orbit from Earth. At that greater distance, it appears about 7% smaller than an average full moon and roughly 14% smaller than a supermoon. Its copper-orange glow is expected because this June full moon will ride unusually low in the sky, a seasonal effect tied to the summer solstice. When the Moon sits near the horizon, its light passes through a thicker slice of Earth’s atmosphere. That extra air scatters shorter blue wavelengths more strongly and lets more red, orange and yellow light reach the eye, producing the warm coppery color. The low position also means the orange tint can linger longer than usual after moonrise. Haze, humidity, dust or smoke near the horizon can intensify that effect. There is one visual twist: even though the micromoon is physically smaller in apparent size, it may still seem large to many viewers at moonrise because of the “Moon illusion,” a brain-based effect caused by comparing the Moon with trees, buildings and the horizon. So the Moon can appear dramatically big while actually being one of the year’s smallest full moons.

3 articles · Updated · Express · Jun 22

June 30 will bring the Strawberry Moon at about 1 a.m. — 12:56 a.m. in the UK — after it rises in the southeast around sunset.
May’s second full moon shifted June’s Strawberry Moon from its usual place as the year’s sixth full moon to the seventh in 2026.
Low on the horizon, the moon may look orange or reddish and seem larger, but experts say the color comes from atmospheric scattering and the size change is only an illusion.
The Strawberry Moon name refers not to its color but to early-summer strawberry season, a traditional label traced to Native American tribes including the Algonquin.