BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — The first full moon of 2026 is here, and it’s a Supermoon!
It will peak in illumination at 4:03 a.m. Saturday, but the moon will be mostly full and very bright beginning tonight, lasting through the weekend.
What makes it a Supermoon is the proximity to Earth. On average, the moon is about 238,900 miles away. Saturday morning, it will be roughly 225,000 miles away, meaning 16,000 miles closer, give or take 100 miles. The result? It’ll appear much larger and brighter in the night sky compared to an average moon. Also, tides will be affected along the coast.
The name “Wolf Moon” was due to the traditional thought that wolves were heard howling this time of year due to hunger. Science has proved that this is not true, but the name has still stuck. I’m not going to try to explain why wolves howl; I’m not a wolf biologist.
To attempt to see it, we will need the clouds to cooperate, which is the only tricky thing for tonight. Skies are likely to be mostly cloudy until a cold front passes tomorrow. So, the better viewing for it will be tomorrow night and Sunday morning. Begin looking eastward after sunset and straight up around midnight…