If you’re a fan of stargazing, make sure you mark this evening off in your calendar.
Tonight, a Super Pink Moon is set to appear in the skies, meaning our lunar satellite will look both bigger and brighter in the night sky.
A full moon occurs when the moon is located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun, meaning its face is fully illuminated.
Meanwhile, this will also be a supermoon as the moon reaches its perigee – the closest that the Moon comes to our planet in its elliptic orbit.
While this moon is known as the Pink Moon, unfortunately, it won’t actually appear pink in colour.
Instead, the name was chosen by early Native American tribes because it marked the appearance of pink flowers.
NASA explained:
“There is a special lunar name for every full moon in a year. The April 28 full moon is known as the ‘Full Pink Moon’ because of the grass pink – or wild ground phlox – flower, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers to bloom in the spring.”
You may also hear this moon referred to as the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon or the Fish Moon. NASA added:
“Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States.
Those tribes of a few hundred years ago kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.”
While the Pink Moon will officially peak at 10:35 PM EST on Tuesday evening, the spectacular should be visible from nightfall tonight.
In our part of the world, that means you should keep an eye to the skies from around 2:35 AM GMT.