May's full 'Flower Moon' rises tonight: Here's what to expect from the 'micromoon'

A Flower Moon is photographed rising over New York in May, 2024. (Image credit: Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images) Editor's note: The full "Flower Moon" has come and gone, delighting skywatchers with a dazzling display of natural light as it climbed over the southeastern horizon on May 1. Check out our May 2026 full moon photo story to see the best pictures of the lunar extravaganza, captured from around the world.The moon will be 100% illuminated at 1:23 p.m. EDT (1723 GMT) on May 1 (local moonrise and moonset times depend on your location), as the lunar disk appears opposite the sun in our sky, fully lit by its rays. The May full moon is also known as the "Flower Moon" in reference to the plentiful blooms that appear around this time as the northern hemisphere slips deeper into spring.May's full moon will occur as the satellite is close to its most distant point from Earth in its near monthly elliptical orbit, giving rise to a "micromoon". Around this time, the moon may appear subtly smaller, while spanning 29.72 arcminutes — a unit used by astronomers to measure distances in the night sky — as opposed to its average size