The October Full Moon is approaching, and it’s the First Super Moon of the year: Here’s what it has in store for us

The October Full Moon is approaching, and it’s the First Super Moon of the year: Here’s what it has in store for us

Saturn, shooting stars, and perhaps even a comet could also be clearly visible on the evening of the full Moon.

As we move forward in our lives, find work, or go out with our friends, the cycle spatial keep going, over and over again. So, without us realizing it, the Moon disappears and then appears in the darkness. Sometimes in the shape of a balloon, sometimes in the shape of a crescent.

On the night of Monday October 6 to Tuesday 7th October 2025, at 5:48 a.m. precisely, it will be there full moon. The usual phenomenon is accompanied by another: one super Moon. This is not an extremely rare event in itself, but it still deserves attention: there october Super Moon is the first of 2025. The first in a series of three (October, November, December), certainly. But the first.

No, the Moon will not be huge

Concretely, the Moon will illuminate (so to speak, it remains the light of the Sun which reverberates) the Earth to its full width from Tuesday 7th October 5:48 a.m. The brightness will gradually increase a few days before and decrease a few days after.

So far, nothing too impressive. But read instead: the full Moon on October 7, 2025 will actually be a super Moon. Which means it will be slightly brighter and more imposing than usual. For extreme cases (this is not the case in October), the NASA evokes a supermoon up to “30% brighter and 14% wider” than a micro Moon (the opposite).

The phenomenon is due to permanent movement in space. The Moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical orbit, and sometimes it finds itself more or less close to us. In this case, at 5:48 a.m. sharp Tuesday, our natural satellite will be at 367,133 km, while on average, it is more like 384,400 km.

Unfortunately, no spectacular event on the horizon. It’s true that on paper, the Moon appears larger when it is closest to the Earth (we speak of perigee), but in reality, the difference is not extremely striking either.

Super Moon compared to a Micro Moon
A 2012 photo that compares a supermoon to a micromoon (a full moon while in its farthest orbit from Earth). (©Nasa)

And from the ground up, it will be difficult to see a real difference. On the other hand, the night sky has other surprises in store for the 7th October.

But she will be well accompanied

Already, it will be very difficult to miss this big shiny dot next to the star of Selene, as the Greeks said when talking about the Moon. No, it’s not just any passing star or comet: it’s Saturn

And it’s always fun to be able to see another planet in our solar system without moving your feet. The little feeling of dizziness is exhilarating. 

On the other hand, the October full moon will fall during the rain of shooting stars from the Orionids. Not during the peak intensity (scheduled for October 21) of course, but it will be entirely possible to detect one or two shooting stars crossing the celestial vault behind the light of the Moon. 

Finally, (no, that’s not all!), on the 7th October, it will also mark the arrival, in the skies of the northern hemisphere, of C/2025 R2. A passing comet, and which could be visible using a telescope.

Nothing is won for this one, and astronomers prefer the date of the 20th October instead. But as Nicolas Biver, astrophysicist at the Paris observatory and president of the Comet Commission of the Astronomical Society of France, says , “with comets, you never know! “

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