The Moon
The Moon In November
The moon is already a waxing gibbous beacon in the night sky as the penultimate month of 2025 begins. Over successive nights, its disc fattens to full on the fifth, when the sky will be filled with its brightness.
At this time of year, we can carry out effective astronomy early in the evening and so it is that by the start on November’s second week, we’re able to enjoy dark skies before the moon rises. Last quarter is on the 11th and we’re able to enjoy dark evenings now all the way past the new moon on the 20th and into the final week of the month.
The last few days of November are when the moon’s waxing crescent disc bring it back to first quarter on the 28th, which is a spectacular time for observing the Lunar 100.
Moon Name
November’s full moon is named for nature’s dam builders: the Beaver Moon. They are busy getting ready for winter, which is why this month’s full moon is named after them. Native Americans gave the November full moon the names of Frost and Freezing moon, for reasons that are self-explanatory.
Viewing Summary
| Dark Evenings | Dark Mornings | Dark Night | Evening Moon | Morning Moon |
| 11-24 | 17-29 | 15-25 | 1-8, 27-30 | 3-13 |
Moon Phases, Rise & Set Times
Whether you are planning to observe the moon, or you want to make sure to avoid it, use the table below to discover when the moon will be above the horizon this month. The ‘Illumination’ column shows how bright it is going to be – the higher the %, the brighter the moon.
Moon Table Notes
- A=Apogee (furthest approach), P=Perigee (closest approach), FQ=First Quarter, LQ=Last Quarter
- All times are for Kansas City (DST). However, these times will be approximately accurate for your local time zone wherever you are in the northern hemisphere. For example, if you live in London, UK, the moonrise and set times will be no more than an hour different from those shown in the table above.
- There are two moonrise columns in the table, this is because each day is timed from midnight to midnight. On some days in the month the moon is already in the sky at midnight, therefore it sets first before rising again later in the day. On other days, the moon is below the horizon at midnight. On those days it rises first before setting later in the day.
- The data in the table comes from timeanddate.com
Visualization Of The Moon’s Impact
The following chart shows a visualisation of when the moon is above the horizon and below. This should make it easier for you to plan which nights offer the darkest skies and which provide the best opportunity for observing the moon itself.
First & Last Quarter Moon Locations
The two pictures below, from SkySafari 6, show the last and first quarter moons available to us in April.
We’ll see it reach last quarter on 11 November, when the moon will be passing through Libra. Last quarter is always best viewed in the evening, when the moon is higher in the sky. The image below shows the moon’s location at 5:00 am when it will be 69° over the southern horizon.
First quarter, which is better for lunar gazers outside in the morning, happens on the 27th of November. The second star chart below reveals that the moon is in Aries that night and 26° above the southeastern horizon at 9:00 pm.
Click on the pictures for full screen versions.
