We provide free printable 2027 moon phases calendars in four different designs.
Each template shows the whole year on a page. A small moon icon is used to represent the Moon’s shape for each day, and all four primary moon phases, which are the new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter, are marked with a ring to help you spot them at a glance. In the U.S., a few dates fall a day earlier than the template shows, because our templates follow Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). We explain this further down the page.
What Is the Difference Between All Our Moon Phases Templates?
All four 2027 moon phases calendar templates provide information on the dates and moon phases for all the months in 2027. The difference between the templates is purely a matter of design and layout rather than the information present on each of them. Here is a brief description of each template:
The Green Portrait Design: This template presents all the months in 2027 in columns, while the days from 01 to 31 are listed on the left side as rows. The month names are abbreviated, and there are dark green icons on a pale, near-white background, which represent the Moon. These icons appear in many cells on the template, and the abbreviated weekday names appear to the left of each moon icon. The template is designed in a portrait orientation, which makes it appear tall rather than wide. This orientation helps readers look across a single row to compare the same date in every month and notice how the Moon’s shape changes from month to month.
The Cream Landscape Design: This template comes in a wider layout. The months of the year are listed in rows that extend downwards from the left. It has the days of the month from 01 to 31 laid out at the top, and abbreviated weekday names appear below the dark brown icons that represent the Moon phases. The template is designed with a cream background, and the landscape orientation helps readers trace the different phases of the Moon as it brightens and darkens over the course of the month.
The pink design with circular wheels: This 2027 moon phase calendar template is designed with 12 rings, which represent the months of the year. There are four rings per row with a layout of three rows in total. The day numbers of each month are arranged in a circle at the outermost part of the ring, while moon icons appear just inside the day numbers. At the innermost part of the ring are the weekday names, which are abbreviated. The days count clockwise starting at the top, and the moon is represented by deep reddish-brown icons. This template is designed on a light pink background, and it has a landscape orientation. The rings on this template show each lunar cycle as an actual circle, which helps readers study how the Moon gets full and empties as it returns to where it started.
The dark navy design with monthly grids: This template has a portrait orientation, and all the months of the year are presented in a grid layout arranged on a dark navy background. There are four rows with three months arranged on each row. The weeks on this template are arranged from Monday to Sunday, with cream and gold icons representing the Moon. At the top of the template, there is a row of seven moon icons sitting beneath the title, which shows the different shapes of the Moon. This template looks like an ordinary calendar because the dates sit in weekday columns. This helps readers see which weekday each moon phase falls on without counting across a row of numbers.
How to Read the Moon Icons
When we look up in the night sky, we can observe that on some nights the Moon is dim or appears cut in half, while at other times the Moon is full and bright. These changes in the Moon’s appearance are the phases of the Moon. So what causes changes in the Moon’s appearance?
The Moon has no natural light of its own; it relies on the Sun for light, and sunlight always falls on exactly half of it. As the Moon orbits around the Earth and the Earth orbits around the Sun, the angle between the Sun, Moon, and Earth changes every day. These changes in angle affect how much of the lit half we can see, which is why the Moon often appears to have different shapes.
From our line of sight, we see the Moon’s disk change from all dark to all light and back to all dark again. This period spans an average of 29.5 days, and it is called the lunar cycle.
The lunar cycle has been broken down into four primary moon phases: new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter. These primary phases are the ones ringed on every template we provide, and they follow the definitions published by the U.S. Naval Observatory.
The icons on our templates that are unringed are the intermediate moon phases, which include waxing crescent, waxing gibbous, waning gibbous, and waning crescent. Each of these phases lasts about a week.
While observing the Moon over the course of the month, you can notice as it grows from a new moon to a first quarter moon. The phase of the Moon in this period is known as a waxing crescent, when less than half of the disk is lit and the lit part is growing. As the Moon continues to brighten, it grows into a gibbous shape, where more than half of the disk is lit but not all of it, until it reaches the full moon phase, where the whole disk is illuminated. In the period between the full moon and the last quarter, the Moon shrinks and takes the shape of a waning gibbous. In this phase, the Moon appears more than half lit but not fully, and the lit part shrinks night after night, starting with only a thin sliver in darkness in the nights just after the full moon. After the full moon, the Moon has traveled three quarters of the way through its cycle when it reaches the last quarter, and it appears half lit once more. In the period between the last quarter and the new moon, the lit area slowly shrinks over a period of days until only a very thin crescent remains, after which the entire Moon is covered in darkness, which is the new moon phase.
When observing our 2027 moon phases calendars, the colored parts of the moon icon on the green, cream, and pink templates represent the dark side of the Moon, while the white part is the lit side. This is reversed on the navy design because the cream or gold part is the lit side on that template.
What Time Standard Do the Templates Follow?
UTC is the world’s reference clock, which is why most calendars align with it. All dates on the four templates follow UTC. It is important to note that each primary phase of the Moon occurs at the exact same moment everywhere on Earth. However, the local date you would write down for that moment depends on your time zone. The implication of our templates following UTC is that sometimes, a phase that occurs early in the UTC day falls on the previous day in the U.S. For example, on our 2027 moon phases calendars, the new moon in July 2027 happens at 3:02am UTC on July 4, which is 11:02pm on July 3 in New York, so the templates show July 4.
Readers in the U.S. should check local times for phases falling near midnight UTC. You can find exact times for every phase on the U.S. Naval Observatory’s phase data page.
All 2027 Full Moon Dates
The templates show a full moon on each of these dates in 2027:
- January 22
- February 20
- March 22
- April 20
- May 20
- June 19
- July 18
- August 17
- September 15
- October 15
- November 14
- December 13
Because the templates follow UTC, as explained above, two of these fall a day earlier in U.S. time zones: the June full moon occurs on June 18 and the November full moon on November 13. You can check the local times for each phase in Griffith Observatory’s 2027 phase table.
Every month in 2027 has exactly one full moon, so there is no Blue Moon this year.
Why Use a Moon Phase Calendar
In today’s digital world, where we are almost always browsing through the internet or interacting on social media apps, moon phase calendars present a practical way to relax, slow down, and connect with nature by observing the Moon. Some of the practical uses of a moon phases calendar include:
Stargazing and Night Photography: The Moon is not visible during the new moon phase, so the sky is usually at its darkest, and faint objects like the Milky Way and the stars show up better. If you are someone who loves to watch the night sky or take night photography, you can use our 2027 moon phases calendars to plan these activities around the new moon phase for each month.
Evening Plans around the Full Moon: Full moons usually rise around sunset and set around sunrise. You can plan evening walks, outdoor gatherings, or camping trips around this period because the night is brightest during this moon phase.
Teaching and Everyday Curiosity: Whether you are a teacher or a parent, you can use our 2027 moon phases calendar templates to show children how the Moon cycles through different phases over the course of the month and the year as a whole. A printed copy you can put somewhere visible lets them check a date and observe the Moon and its phase for that date.
How to Download or Print Our 2027 Moon Phases Calendar Templates
There are two ways to access our 2027 moon phases calendar templates. The first is to click the image of your desired calendar; this will open a JPG version you can save to your device. This is best suited for those who want a picture of the calendar on their phone.
To access the PDF version of the calendar, click the “Print it” button below each template. This opens a PDF version in your browser that you can either download or print.
If you plan on printing any of the moon phases calendar templates, choose US Letter or A4 in the print dialog and use the scale or fit-to-page option if the edges get cut off.
Note that the green and navy templates have a portrait orientation, while the cream and pink templates are designed in a landscape orientation. When printing, match the print orientation to the design’s orientation so the calendar prints at full size.