The first full moon of spring will be a ‘pink’ supermoon – the biggest and the brightest full moon of the year.

The pink supermoon, called the Paschal full moon, will appear on April 7th. It will fill the whole sky with luminous brightness. What an incredible way to welcome the spring season!

This unique supermoon is named after the Greek word for ‘Passover’. The Paschal full moon takes place on the 14th day of the lunar month starting after the Spring Equinox, which occurred on March 20. Moreover, this particular supermoon is used to determine when Easter falls in any given year.

Although the supermoon is labeled ‘pink’, the moonlight on the night of April 7th won’t actually be pink.

The pink color is a reference to a certain type of wildflower, native to North America, called ‘Phlox subulata’. According to a Newsweek report, the beautiful wildflower has a vivid pink hue and blooms in springtime.

Usually, a supermoon occurs once a year, when a full moon coincides with the moon being at the closest orbital point to Earth, called a perigee. It can appear between 7 and 14 percent larger than a full moon, and nearly 30 percent brighter.

A supermoon’s appearance is relatively rare, due to the elliptical moon’s orbital path around the Earth. What’s more,  full moons rarely occur while the moon is also at its perigee, so the pink supermoon will be a mesmerizing view you absolutely shouldn’t miss.

Tania de Sales Marques, an astronomer with the Royal Observatory, U.K., says:

“The best thing to do is to wait until after the sun has set and the sky is dark, find an unobstructed view of the sky, and weather permitting you should get to see a slightly brighter than usual full moon.”

Marques advises anyone who would want to capture the magical supermoon on a photograph, to be aware that they would need the proper equipment to do so, ‘as the moon captured on a phone will look more like a blob’.

If you want to observe this captivating sky wonder, the best time to do it is on April 7th, at 10:35 PM EDT.

The moon will at least appear to be larger than normal Tuesday evening into the early morning hours of Wednesday. That's when the celestial phenomenon colloquially known as a supermoon will return, and this one should be the biggest and brightest of 2020. Because it's the first full moon of the northern spring, it's also traditionally known as the "pink moon." 

On Tuesday, the moon will be at its closest point to us all year, making it appear up to 30% larger than it looks when it's at its furthest point from our planet. But it still probably won't be pink. If it's especially hazy where you are, you might get a nice orange hue, but that could be a sign of wildfire smoke nearby and no one wants that, especially during a global pandemic. 

To get the best view of the supermoon, head outside around sunset wherever you are on Tuesday to say goodnight to your friendly neighborhood star and then turn around to await the emergence of the full moon over the horizon. Full moons always rise around sunset as a matter of geometry, and thanks to an optical illusion, they also appear at their biggest when they are nearest the horizon.