SAN DIEGO (KSWB/KUSI) – April full moon, known as ‘Pink Moon,’ will light up the spring night sky this week alongside several of our closest planets and April’s Lyrid meteor shower.
Following the April 8 total solar eclipsethe moon is once again the star of the show, peaking this week.
The April full moon peaks on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:49 pm EDT. The moon, nicknamed the Pink Moon, will appear full for about three days, starting Monday morning (which is Earth’s Day) until Thursday morning.
The Pink Moon is named after the herb moss rose, a plant native to the eastern U.S. and one of the first widespread flowers of spring, according to NASA. Other names for this moon include Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon, Pesach or Easter Moon, Hanuman Jayanti Festival Moon, and Bak Poya.
Planets visible next to April’s full moon
On Tuesday night, while the moon is full, Jupiter will be visible just above the west-northwestern horizon and will remain visible to the naked eye until April 29, NASA says.
Tuesday morning, Mars and Saturn will be visible just above the eastern horizon. Shortly after the start of twilight, Mercury will appear – however, it will be faint, NASA explains.
Lyrid meteor shower
Because the moon will be full and bright this week, it is expected to outshine the annual Lyrid meteor shower, which peaks April 21-22.
Because of the light from the full moon, only a few of the brightest shooting stars will be visible per hour this year, NASA says.
Typically, Lyrids produce fast, bright meteors, with about 10 to 20 visible every hour. At best, the Lyrids can shine with up to 100 meteors per hour. NASA does not expect this year’s rain to be as heavy.
Those looking up can expect dawn to be the best time to view the meteor shower when the moon is at its lowest.
The Lyrid meteor shower is one of the oldest known meteor showers, having been observed 2,700 years ago.
NASA says the meteors come from leftover comet particles and broken asteroid pieces. The pieces of space debris that interact with our atmosphere and that create Lyrids originate from comet C/1861 G1 Thatcherdiscovered in 1861.
The next full moon will peak on Thursday, May 23rd.
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