September 2025 Full Corn Moon

September’s full Corn Moon occurs at exactly 2:09PM EDT on Sunday, September 7, 2025.  This is the exact moment the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the Earth.  At this moment in time the Moon will be below the horizon, but it will still look full and round when it rises later that evening at 7:51PM.  In the northern part of the U.S. late summer to early fall is the time of year for harvesting corn.  This is why many Native American tribes call September’s full Moon the Corn Moon. 

Wait a minute, isn’t September’s full Moon called the Harvest Moon?  Some years it is, but not this year.  The Harvest Moon is the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox.  This year the full Harvest Moon occurs on October 6.  When a full moon occurs close to the autumnal equinox its orbital path is making a shallow angle with the horizon causing the Moon to rise relatively soon after sunset for a few days in a row.  This means that September’s Moon will also look full and bright on the 6 ^th and 8 ^th .

Although Corn Moon is the traditional name used for September’s full Moon there are others.  There are more harvest related names such as the Western Abenaki name Corn Maker Moon and the Dakota peoples called it Moon When Rice is Laid Up to Dry. There are names relating to leaves turning color and falling from the trees such as the Ojibwe name Falling Leaves Moon the Anishinaabe name Leaves Turning Moon and the Assiniboine name Yellow Leaf Moon.  And there are names relating to what animals are doing this time of year such as the Tlingit name Child Moon as this is the time of year young animals are weaned, and the Cree Moon names Mating Moon and Rutting Moon as some animals mate this time of year.

On September 7 there will be a total lunar eclipse of the full Corn Moon that will be seen in Antarctica, Australia, Asia, the western Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Europe, the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Africa.  Unfortunately, the eclipse path does not include the Americas as the Moon will be well below our horizon when the eclipse occurs. However, The Virtual Telescope Project will livestream the eclipse from Italy, starting just after moonrise. You can find the livestream at  the Virtual Telescope Project’s YouTube channel. The Start time for this live stream is 17:45 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).  For those of us in the Eastern Time Zone 17:45 is 5:45PM and because we are using daylight savings time, we have to subtract 4 hours from this time making the livestream start time 1:45PM. If you are reading this post in a different time zone adjust your time as needed, e.g. in the Central Time Zone the start time will be 12:45PM,

etc.

We have an added celestial bonus on September 7.  The planet Saturn is a little below and to the east of the Moon. Enjoy the Corn Moon and Saturn!