Did you see it? First super moon of the year shines bright
The super pink moon rose Monday night a few minutes before sunset but can still be seen Tuesday morning.
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The super pink moon rose Monday night a few minutes before sunset and was visible until 6:53 a.m. Tuesday morning, according to WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner.
The moon reached full phase at 11:31 p.m. It will look a bit bigger, but its color won’t be any different than usual. The “pink” label comes from phlox, pink flowers that bloom around this time of year.
The full moon is “super” because it reaches perigee, or the closest point it its orbit to the Earth Tuesday at 11:22 a.m. This is good enough to meet all major definitions of “super moon.” Full moons in May and June 2021 also earn the “super” label.
Remaining full moons in 2021
- April 26 -- Pink moon (super), pink flowers which bloom in mid spring
- May 26 -- Flower moon (super), named by Native American tribes northeastern United States for the abundant flowers blooming in May.
- June 24 -- Strawberry moon (super according to some), named for the strawberry harvest
- July 23 -- Buck moon named for the male deer who sport new antlers around this time
- August 22 -- Sturgeon moon, good sturgeon fishing in the Great Lakes
- September 20 -- Harvest moon, technically the full moon closest to the equinox. Most years this is in September but October's full moon can get this label.
- October 20 -- Hunter's moon, good game hunting, fattened for the winter
- November 19 -- Beaver moon, named for the time when beavers retreat into their lodges for winter
- December 18 -- Cold moon, named for the long winters night
Wasn't March's full moon super?
That depends on who you ask. Most say no, but retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak says yes.
This super label is nothing official. Originally coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 in a supermarket checkout horoscope magazine, Sky and Telescope Magazine, the TimeAndDate.com website, and the Earth Sky radio series have also weighed in with their own definitions of supermoon varying only by the Moon-Earth distance (223,000, 223,694, 224,865 miles respectively).
The full moon on June 24 is super according to Espenak and Earth Sky.
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