2020 is a season of full moon! With the three full supermoons with April-May and another set of three within September-November, the year gives us a visual treat on skywatching.
A supermoon is a new or full moon closely coinciding with perigee, the moon's closest point to Earth in its monthly orbit. It will occur when the moon is within 90% of perigee, which is its closest approach to Earth in orbit.
What is a supermoon?
The moon will appear brighter and bigger in the night sky, and hopefully, no clouds and inclement weather will obscure the view. Beguilingly, yesterday, April 7, the moon came closest to the Earth for the entire year when it reached the perigee.
Of this year's 13 lunar perigees, this is one of only two lunar perigees that comes closer than 221,830 miles (357,000 km). The other close lunar perigee (356,912 km or 221,775 miles) falls on October 16, 2020, approximately 3 1/2 hours after the October 16 new moon.
The 'Pink moon'
Amid the lockdown, when the world got locked in the darkness of the coronavirus pandemic, the largest, brightest supermoon of 2020 rose in the night sky over hushed cities, stilled factories and countries.
April's full moon is known as 'pink moon' after the pink flowers that start to appear in the fields this month in some places. This April full moon is the first of the season's three full moons to fall between the March equinox and the June solstice.
For those who missed the visual treat on April 7, the moon will remain as such for the next day too! The full moon will climb highest up for the night around midnight and set in the west around sunrise April 8.
