May’s full Flower Moon will rise as daylight fades on Friday 1 May, lifting low in the eastern sky before climbing toward the south-east as midnight approaches. It will cross the southern sky through the night and set off to the south-west around dawn.
The moon is expected to look a touch smaller than usual because this full moon arrives close to its farthest point from Earth in its orbit, known as apogee. That makes it a micromoon. The difference between apogee and the nearer point in orbit, perigee, is roughly 363,000km and 406,000km, but to the naked eye the shift is barely noticeable unless you are comparing photographs. A micromoon can appear slightly less bright than average, but it remains a full moon and the effect is modest.
The Flower Moon name comes from Native American seasonal naming traditions, later popularised through sources such as the Farmer's Almanac. These names were tied to the natural world and marked the changes unfolding each month. In May, that meant wildflowers bursting into bloom, warmer weather, and renewed plant growth.
Viewers in the UK may have to work around the weather. Low pressure in the Bay of Biscay is expected to drift closer to the UK's shores into Thursday and Friday, bringing a chance of showers, initially focused on western regions. That also means more cloud in the night sky, which could limit unbroken viewing, although the cloud is expected to be patchy and leave clear spells at times.
There is another reason skywatchers may keep looking up later in the month. A second full Moon at the tail end of May would be a Blue Moon, a rare event that comes around once every two to three years. For Friday night, though, the story is simpler: the Flower Moon will be there, lower than some expect, a little smaller than usual, and worth catching if the sky clears.