The July full moon put on a magnificent show on July 10, rising low over the southern horizon to the delight of stargazers and astrophotographers worldwide. Read on for a roundup of the best photos of the lunar show.
July’s full moon is known as the ‘Buck Moon’, in reference to the male deer — called bucks in the U.S. — that begin to grow out their antlers around this time of year. Eagle-eyed observers may have noticed this month’s full moon riding unusually low on the horizon. This is a result of the Buck Moon’s proximity to the summer solstice — a time when the sun is at its highest in the daytime sky and the moon travels a correspondingly low path through the night.
It also appeared near a phenomenon called a Major Lunar Standstill. Roughly every 18.6 years, the sun’s gravity pulls the moon’s tilted orbit into its most extreme inclination relative to Earth‘s celestial equator. As a result, the moon appears especially low in the sky during the summer months.
As always, the astrophotography community was ready to grab the lunar milestone by the horns, setting up imaginative compositions that captured the moon’s fully-lit disk alongside world-famous landmarks and ancient ruins. If you missed the moon rise on July 10, don’t worry, the moon will still appear full to the naked eye over the next couple of nights, so get out there and line up some shots.
Read on to see a roundup of the most spectacular images of July’s full Buck Moon.
The July 2025 full Buck Moon in photos
Photographer Ismael Adnan Yaqoob captured this image of the full moon rising behind a Ferris wheel in the city of Mosul in Iraq on July 10, creating a spectacular blend of the old and new as the reflected light of the sun vied for attention with the glow of artificial light.
A ballerina strikes an elegant pose as the moon rises over the mountains near Ankara, Turkey. Photographer Evrim Aydin likely took the image using a long lens from far away, which allowed them to keep the subject in focus, while making the moon appear outsized in relation to the foreground object.
Photographer John Threlfall was able to capture a striking shot of the Buck Moon rising over St. Annes beach on the Fylde Coast in North West England on July 9 just ahead of the full moon phase.
“I had planned this shot for a while and last night I managed to capture it,” Threlfall told Space.com in an email. “I was at a distance of about half a mile, using my telephoto lens at 600mm – the compression of the lens makes the Moon appear bigger. The people in the shot help give some scale.”
Thin wisps of cloud can be seen lining the moon’s distorted disk, which takes on an orange hue while low on the horizon, as Earth’s atmosphere scatters the bluer wavelengths of reflected light, while allowing redder wavelengths to pass through relatively unhindered.
“What looks like internal lights on the pier building is actually the sunset colours reflecting off the glass, the sun was setting at the same time as the moon was rising,” Threlfall continued. “The Moon is currently rising in its most southerly position compared to normal, rising in the South East, allowing for shots that are not normally possible. The Moon is also staying low in the sky currently due to the major lunar standstill.”
Robertus Pudyanto captured this spectacularly detailed shot of July’s full moon as it graced the skies over Surabaya, Indonesia, on July 10. Bright streaks of material can be seen marking the dark ‘lunar seas’, created when reflective material was cast far across the lunar surface by cataclysmic asteroid strikes in the distant past.
Photographer Lorenzo Di Cola lined up this shot of the orange-yellow full moon setting behind the ruins of the Rocca Calascio castle in Italy just before sunrise on July 11.
Julian Finney captured a tennis-themed full moon by imaging the moon’s disk behind the weathervane of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, where the 2025 Wimbledon competition is well underway.
The full Buck Moon can be seen rising over the Temple of Poseidon in southern Greece in this image captured by Costas Baltas as the lunar disk crept over the southeastern horizon on the night of July 10.
Firdous Nazir captured a striking image of the moon wreathed by clouds on July 10 from Kashmir, India. The coming days will see the moon’s shadowy terminator creep across its surface, heralding the onset of its waning gibbous phase.
Photographer Hakan Akgun managed to get into the perfect position to catch the full moon rise behind the iconic Galata Tower in Istanbul, Turkey on the night of July 10, capturing the warm lights of the city alongside the ruddy glow of Earth’s natural satellite, darkened by lunar maria.
X user Sigma Sreedhan also posted a stunning image of the 97 percent lit moon rising over Tahoma mountain — also known as Mount Rainier — in Washington State on July 9.
Hello Moon! 97% illuminated #buckmoon rising behind #tahoma last night. #pnw #mountrainier #myfujifilmlegacyShot on #fujigfx100s #fujigf500mm (and cropped in post)F7.1, 1/30 sec, ISO 100 pic.twitter.com/BgD1g9FwZtJuly 10, 2025
Veteran photographer Jeff Overs also shared a beautiful view of the full Buck Moon rising behind the Shard skyscraper and the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in London to the social media platform.
Another of last night’s full #Buckmoon rising over The Shard & St Paul’s pic.twitter.com/TLcpjNMrDiJuly 11, 2025
Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
