TORONTO, Monday, April 6, 2020 – Getting tired of staring at four walls? This week you can gaze out the window or up from your backyard at the biggest and brightest moon you’ll see all year – a super pink moon, says York University astronomy and physics Professor Paul Delaney.

It will be the closest to Earth when it rises on April 7 and become a full moon on April 8. Although it will still be 356,907 kilometres away, it’s closer than the average of 384,400 km.

“Eight and a half hours after it reaches its closest point (perigee) to Earth, the full moon on April 8 will indeed appear to be the largest and brightest full Moon in 2020,” says Delaney, director of the Allan I. Carswell Observatory in the Faculty of Science.

Don’t expect it to look pink though. As the first full moon of spring, it’s called a pink moon because of the pink wildflowers, creeping or moss phlox, that bloom each spring.

While you’re looking up, you may also see the International Space Station if you live in the Greater Toronto Area, Burlington or Pickering on Monday and Wednesday. NASA’s website, says “it will be the third brightest object in the sky” and look like a “fast-moving plane”.

Plenty of reasons to look up this week.

Delaney is available for interviews.

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