Full Wolf Moon over the UK - Thursday, January 28

Get ready to howl

THE first full moon of the year also known as the Wolf Moon will occur on Thursday, January 28.

If you want to be precise about it, the moon is only ‘full’ – in other words reflecting the maximum amount of sunlight onto Earth – for a very short period of time. This is known as syzygy and happens when Earth is exactly between the Moon and the Sun.

In the UK, this will happen at 7.16pm on January 28, but, to the naked eye, the moon will still appear full for two or three nights afterwards.

And in case you’re wondering – do wolves howl at the moon?

There is no scientific evidence that the moon phase plays any particular part in the calls of the wolf, but wolves are nocturnal animals, so they are in general more active at night. And wolves do howl in the direction of the moon; they point their faces toward the sky for better acoustics, because projecting their howl upward carries the sound farther.