A god news for sky gazers and get ready for cosmic feast, as the first supermoon of 2021 will occur on 27 April. It will be the first of three consecutive supermoons this year, making it an ideal time to discuss this often-misunderstood phenomenon and separate fact from fiction.The full Moon on 27 April occurs in the early hours, 12 hours ahead of perigee: the point in the Moon’s orbit where it’s closest to Earth. This perigee full Moon appears a little brighter and larger than an average full Moon, and is known by some as a ‘supermoon’.Some are calling this supermoon a ‘pink supermoon’, but you shouldn’t expect the Moon to be a different colour. The name comes from the practise of naming the different full Moons that occur throughout the year.
The Snow Moon, for example, is the full Moon in February, and April’s full moon is the Pink Moon, named after the pink flowers known as phlox that bloom in spring.A supermoon happens when a full Moon coincides with the Moon’s closest approach to Earth along its orbit.We get 12 or 13 full Moons each year but, due to the orientation of the Moon’s orbit, not every full Moon is a supermoon, in the same way that not every full Moon is a lunar eclipse.
