If you look up later tonight, you’ll see a beautiful full moon as it makes its closest approach to Earth this month — aka a supermoon.
In North America, the April full moon is known as a “pink” moon.
It’s not actually pink in colour — according to folklore, it’s named after the first pink flower of the season.
While the Moon will look full all night, in astronomy the full moon happens at a specific point in time when the Moon is directly opposite the Sun (syzygy).
This year, the full moon falls just after midday today in all states except Western Australia, where it falls at 11:00am.
Then, 12 hours later, it comes within 357,378 kilometres from Earth (perigee).
As perigee happens within 24 hours of a full moon, it’s also a “supermoon”, according to one interpretation of the term that was coined by an astrologer.
Astronomers prefer to call this type of event a perigee-syzygy moon.
Getty Images: RugliG
Whatever you want to call it, it will look big and beautiful from the moment it rises.
“The astronomical full moon is 12 hours away from perigee, but to the casual observer it makes no difference,” amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave says.
“The moon that will be rising on the evening of the April 27 will be a full moon.
“It doesn’t matter that the astronomical full moon was earlier.”