Stunning photos show last night’s Full Pink Moon – and there’s a chance you’ll see it again tonight

Stunning new images show that last night’s ‘Pink Moon’ was a spectacle for skygazers around the world.

The Pink Moon – the moon when it is fully lit in April – was captured all over the world, from Wiltshire to San Francisco.

A full moon occurs 12 or 13 times a year when the entire side of the moon facing Earth is illuminated by the sun’s rays, making it look like a full sphere.

Nicknames used to describe the full moon were historically used to keep track of the seasons and are therefore closely related to nature.

‘Pink’ is the common name for April’s full moon, as it historically heralded the appearance of moss pink – one of the first flowers of spring.

The pink moon rises over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as seen from Sausalito in San Francisco, California, April 5, 2023

The April full moon reached 100 percent illumination at 05:34 BST on Thursday morning when it was illuminated by the sun’s rays.

Anna Gammon-Ross, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, said the moon will still be visible tonight as a large round sphere, although technically it will no longer be a full moon.

The moon’s illumination, as seen from Earth, is already decreasing and will fall back to 0 percent on April 20.

“By the time the moon rises tonight, it will look very full, but it will actually be only about 99.8 percent lit,” Gammon-Ross told MailOnline.

“Tonight the moon will rise in the east about 8:15 p.m., travel slowly across the sky all night, and move west a little before 7 a.m. the next morning.”

It is a common misconception that the name ‘Pink Moon’ refers to the color of the moon.

Whenever the full moon appears, it is given a nickname depending on the month of the year.

So January is Wolf Moon, February is Snow Moon, March is Worm Moon, April is Pink Moon and so on.

Pink moon shines over Al-Ikhlas Mosque in Ungaran, Central Java province, Indonesia, in the early morning of April 6, 2023

Photo of the pink moon rising as people walk in Athens, Greece, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023

The Pink Moon sets over San Francisco, as seen from the hills of Oakland, California, on April 5, 2023. Pink Moon is the name for the full moon in April and has nothing to do with its color

The full moon will pass east of the Van Nuys air traffic control tower in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday, April 5, 2023

The name “Pink Moon” can be especially confusing because the moon often appears to take on shades of pink, though this is a play of light, Gammon-Ross explains.

“When the moon looks pink, it’s usually when it’s low in the sky,” she told MailOnline.

‘That’s because the light from the sun has to travel further through the atmosphere before it can reach the moon when it’s in this position.

“This greater distance means more of the bluish light is scattered, leaving only the redder parts of the rainbow spectrum.”

A full moon occurs once every 29.5 days – the time it takes for the moon to go through an entire lunar cycle.

Because this is just under a month, two full moons sometimes occur in the space of a month — a rare astronomical event known as a “blue moon.”

Normally, blue moons only occur once every two or three years – hence the phrase ‘once in a blue moon’.

The next blue moon this year will occur on August 31, and it will also be a “supermoon,” a full moon that appears larger than usual.

So what causes a supermoon? The Moon orbits on an elliptical path, meaning one side of its path is closer to Earth than the other.

At the point in the Moon’s orbit when it is closest to Earth, it appears 14 percent larger than a micromoon, and vice versa

The closest point in the orbit is called perigee, which creates an unusually large and bright “supermoon.”

Sometimes the moon is in perigee without being fully illuminated, which is why we don’t get a supermoon too often.

While a full moon occurs about every 29.5 days, a supermoon is a much rarer event – there are usually only three or four a year.

In 2023, there will be four supermoons, all of which will occur in summer or fall: July 3, August 1, August 31 (the one that is also a blue moon), and September 29.

According to EarthSkythe moon will be 222,043 miles from Earth on Aug. 31, closer than any of the other three supermoons for 2023, so it should be particularly large and bright — and not to be missed.

Full Moon, Super Moon, Pink Moon: What’s the Difference?

a FULL MOON is the phase of the moon when the entire disk is illuminated.

During the 29.5-day lunar cycle, we see a new moon (with 0 percent illumination), a waxing moon (when the amount of illumination on the moon increases), a full moon (100 percent illumination), and then a waning moon. moon (when the visible surface gets smaller).

Because our modern calendar doesn’t quite match the phases of the moon, we sometimes get more than one full moon per month. This is commonly known as a blue moon.

Meanwhile, one SUPER MOON is when the full moon nearly coincides with perigee — the point in the moon’s orbit at which it is closest to Earth.

This means that a supermoon can appear as much as 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than when it’s farthest from Earth.

There are about three or four supermoons per year, most astronomy websites claim, and they occur at different times each year.

Basically, a supermoon is a full moon. But it’s bigger and brighter than a normal full moon.

finally, PINK MOON simply refers to the time of year when the full moon appears.

This name does not refer to the color of the moon, but rather is a reference to a wildflower called moss pink (Phlox subulata) that blooms around the same time.

‘Pink’ is the common name for the April full moon, as it historically heralded the appearance of moss pink (Phlox subulata)

Different months of the year have different nicknames – so January is Wolf Moon, February is Snow Moon, March is Worm Moon, April is Pink Moon and so on.

Full moon names were historically used to keep track of the seasons and are therefore closely related to nature.

If a supermoon appears in April, it is called a ‘pink supermoon’.

The full list of full moon nicknames:

January: wolf moon because wolves were heard more often during this time.

February: Snow moon coincide with heavy snowfall.

March: Worm Moon as the sun warmed the ground more and more and earthworms became active.

April: pink moon because it heralded the appearance of Phlox subulata or moss pink – one of the first spring flowers.

Be able to: Flower moon because of the abundance of blossoms.

June: Strawberry Moon because it appeared when the strawberry harvest first took place.

July: Buck Moon as it arrived when a male deer’s antlers were in full growth.

August: Sturgeon moon after the big fish that was easy to catch at the time.

September: Corn Moon because this was the time to harvest corn.

October: Hunters moon after the time to hunt in preparation for winter.

November: Beaver moon because it was time to set up beaver traps.

December: Cold moon because the nights were longest at this time of year.

Source: Old Farmer’s Almanac