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

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

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

We don’t get a blood moon every month (or a solar eclipse!) is because the Moon doesn’t line up with the Sun and the Earth - it orbits slightly tilted around the Earth so it misses the Earth’s shadow

NASA space place

https://earthsky.org/space/why-is-the-moons-orbit-tilted-collisionless-encounters

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