Rare Pink Supermoon Will Be Visible Throughout Spain

RARE pink supermoon will be visible throughout Spain in April

The season of spring in Spain may not have begun with the best weather, but it has so far offered us a host of stunning celestial spectacles, the latest of which will grace our skies next week. One of the most interesting astronomical phenomena of the year, the enormous pink supermoon will be clearly visible to the naked eye throughout Spain on Monday night, April 26.

According to the experts, the moon will be at its clearest at around 5:30am, but it should be visible to the entire country for much of the night without the need for binoculars or telescopes. This is because the distance between the Earth and the moon will be reduced, causing the supermoon to appear 7 per cent bigger than normal, and 15 per cent brighter than usual.

Of course, the supermoon is not actually pink in colour, but is so-called because its appearance coincides with the flowering of pink moss across the globe, most prolifically in Canada and the United States. Conversely, it is often called the ‘egg moon’ in Spain since this is the time of year many native birds begin to lay.

An equally spectacular phenomenon known as ‘the rain of lyrical stars’ will also sweep across Spanish skies in April, but its appearance has been sadly hampered by the recent overcast and cloudy weather. During this period, up to twenty shooting stars can be seen every hour as fragments from Comet Thatcher fall to the Earth.

Last month, the first full moon of the spring season, also called the ‘worm moon’ appeared on March 28. According to NASA, the phenomenon got its name from native tribes in North America who coined the phrase as the full moon coincides with the re-emergence of earthworms after the winter snows have melted.

The worm moon is not its only name: other tribes call it the sugar moon, indicating the time of year when the sap of the sugar maples begins to flow, or the Lenten moon in the Christian religion, since it coincides with Holy Week.

Source: Informacion