June 2027 Moon Phases

June 2027 has no eclipse, but it pairs two things that don’t line up every year: the lowest-arcing Full Moon of the year and the summer solstice, just three days apart. The month closes with a long-shot chance at a meteor outburst. Here’s what’s happening and when.

The Strawberry Moon rides low, just ahead of the solstice

June’s Full Moon is widely known as the Strawberry Moon. The name is widely associated with Algonquian-speaking peoples of northeastern North America, along with the Ojibwe, Dakota, and Lakota, who used it to mark the short window each June when wild strawberries ripen and are ready to gather. European traditions gave it other names, including the Rose Moon, Mead Moon, and Honey Moon.

This year’s Strawberry Moon is a micromoon, meaning it falls near the far point of the Moon’s orbit and looks slightly smaller and dimmer than an average Full Moon. It’s also the closest Full Moon to the June solstice, and because a Full Moon always sits opposite the Sun in the sky, it traces the same low arc the winter Sun takes six months from now. That makes it the lowest-hanging Full Moon of the year for Northern Hemisphere observers — worth watching for at moonrise, when it climbs the southeastern horizon and can look especially large against trees or buildings on the skyline. For the fuller history and a look at how these names vary across different traditions, see our Strawberry Moon guide.

The solstice marks the start of astronomical summer

Three days after the Strawberry Moon, the Sun reaches its northernmost point in the sky, marking the June solstice. For the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the longest day and shortest night of the year and the astronomical start of summer; for the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the reverse, marking the shortest day and the start of winter. The solstice and the Full Moon aren’t tied to each other astronomically, but their timing this close together is a nice coincidence worth marking on the calendar.

Two long-shot meteor showers bookend the month

June isn’t known for strong meteor showers, but it has two worth knowing about. The Arietids, active from late May through early July, reach their peak around June 10. They’re considered one of the most active daytime meteor showers of the year, but that’s exactly the problem: their radiant sits close to the Sun, so the vast majority of Arietid meteors burn up in broad daylight and are invisible to the naked eye. The best chance of spotting one is in the dark hour just before dawn, low in the east.

The June Bootids, produced by debris from comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke, peak on the evening of June 27. Unlike most showers, they’re best soon after dusk, when their radiant in the constellation Boötes is highest in the sky, rather than after midnight. The Bootids have a reputation as the most unpredictable shower of the year: most years bring only a few meteors an hour, but the shower has produced unexpected outbursts of over a hundred meteors an hour in the past. There’s no way to know in advance which kind of year it will be.