The full moon of January 2024, also known as the Wolf Moon, will fall on Thursday, January 25, at 12:54 p.m. EST (or 17:54 UTC).
The full moon of January 2024 will rise in the east during sunset on Thursday, January 25, shine nearly overhead around midnight, and set in the west during sunrise on Friday, January 26.
However, the moon will appear full for about 3 days around this time, from about midnight Wednesday morning through about midnight Friday night.
The full moon of January 2024 will glow near the Beehive star cluster, also known as Praesepe. The Beehive star cluster is located in the zodiac constellation Cancer and is seen with the naked eye. However, the glow of the full moon will make the cluster obscure.
Beehive is a collection of about 1,000 stars that are loosely bound together by gravity and located about 550 light-years away from Earth. To see the individual stars in the cluster, you need a telescope.
The full moon of January 2024 will be located in the zodiac constellation Cancer along with the Beehive star cluster.
January’s full moon is the Wolf Moon
The full moon of January is called the Wolf Moon because wolf howls are often heard outside the villages amid the cold and deep snows of January’s winter.
It is traditionally believed that wolves howled due to hunger during winter, however that’s not true.
“Howling and other wolf vocalizations are heard in the wintertime to locate pack members, reinforce social bonds, define territory, and coordinate hunting” according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Alternative names for January’s full moon
The Native American name of January’s full moon, i.e., Wolf Moon, is widely known and used. Though there are many names for January’s full moon, which include the Ice Moon, the Old Moon, the Moon after Yule etc.
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