July's full Moon rises tonight, providing moongazers and photographers with the chance to observe and capture our planet's natural satellite looking big, bright and beautiful.
And as it happens, the Royal Observatory Greenwich has just released a selection of beautiful Moon images – which you can see here – as part of the 2025 shortlist for one of the biggest astrophotography competitions in the world.
Want to enter your Moon images into next year's competition?
ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year is an annual competition that celebrates images of the night sky captured by photographers around the world.
Now in its 17th year, APY is the biggest astrophotography competition on the planet.
It welcomes images in multiple categories including Aurorae, People and Space, Galaxies, Our Sun and Our Moon.
And it's the latter category that's caught our eye this week, as the 2025 shortlisted images are released just as we're preparing for July's low-hanging 'Buck Moon' to rise above the southern horizon.
The 'Buck Moon' is so-called because it's the full Moon in July, and July is the time of year when male deer – bucks – grow their antlers.
It's one of many nicknames attributed to the monthly full Moons that reflect big changes in nature at the time of the month in question.
The Buck Moon is one of the lowest full Moons of the year, barely rising above the southern horizon, and this is because it's in the opposite part of the sky to the Sun.
It being around the time of the summer solstice, the Sun is particularly high, and so the Moon is particularly low.
The Buck Moon is also the farthest full Moon from the Sun of the year, and this is because Earth has just reached aphelion, which is the time when our planet is farthest from the Sun in its orbit.
Because the Buck Moon is so low, you may notice it looking slightly orange or red-coloured, and also the effect of the Moon illusion, which is when a low-lying full Moon looks strangely enormous.
Find out more about the competition by visiting the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year website or following Royal Museums Greenwich on Facebook, Instagram and X.
