Pink moon

If every day is starting to feel the same under coronavirus lockdown, fear not: The moon is here to shake things up.

For Americans gazing out their windows on Tuesday night, the full moon is going to look bigger than any other this year. That’s because the evening of April 7 will feature a “super pink moon,” which in New York should be visible from 7:05 p.m. until 7:05 a.m. the next morning.

For the record, the moon won’t actually be pink — the “pink moon” is just a name for the April full moon because it signals the blooming of ground phlox, which are pink flowers found all over the U.S. But the moon will be super, in the sense that it’ll look larger and brighter than normal.

At about 10:35 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, the moon will reach perigee, which is the point in its orbit when it’s closest to Earth. It does that every 28 days or so, but it’s much rarer for perigee to coincide with a full moon, which makes for some real pretty pictures.

The short distance between us and the full moon will make it appear about 7% larger than average and 14% larger than a full moon at its farthest point from Earth. But if you go outside to check it out, make sure to stay at least 6 feet away from other stargazers.