Is anyone else fire fighting against every person and news outlet that has claimed that tonight’s #supermoon will look pink? Or that has used a picture of an orange lunar eclipse moon (a blood moon) in their story? #scicomm A THREAD
“Pink moon” is just a name for any Full Moon in April - tonight’s #supermoon won’t actually look pink (sorry)

All the colloquial names for the full moons (e.g. wolf moon, pink moon) derive from Native American tradition

https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-names">https://www.almanac.com/content/f...
The #supermoon means that the Moon will be closer to us than usual. The moon orbits around the Earth in an oval shape, not a perfect circle. So sometimes it’s closer to us - it looks 7% bigger & 15% brighter than average.

Imperceptible to most people

https://earthsky.org/human-world/what-is-a-supermoon">https://earthsky.org/human-wor...
A lunar eclipse is when the Moon passes through the Earth’s “sunset shadow” during a Full Moon and it appears reddish/orange in colour. Sometimes this can coincide with a supermoon - the media dubbed that a “super blood moon” a few years back

https://www.space.com/15689-lunar-eclipses.html">https://www.space.com/15689-lun...
So tonight’s #supermoon will definitely be something nice to spot out of your window or in your garden - especially when it’s low down on the horizon just after sunset (or before sunrise)

But don’t expect it to look pink, orange, or wear a cape https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👍" title="Thumbs up" aria-label="Emoji: Thumbs up">
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