Local Life

Focus: Bloomin’ Pink Moon

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Pink moon in bloom in Fair Haven
Photos/Susan Culbert

Blooming spring buds were the perfect stage set for last night’s pink moon.

The full, pink super moon was the first of two projected for 2021. While this one is dubbed “pink,” scientists say it’s really not the color of the moon, but more a reflection of the season. The names for moons used in the Farmer’s Almanac are derived from Native, Colonial or other North American tradition. They correspond to the seasonal happenings inherent in each month. So the pink moon is more an April moon that “got its name after the herb pink moss, also known as creeping phlox, moss phlox or mountain phlox, which is one of the earliest spring flowers appearing in the United States,” according to space.com.

And, just as the pink blooms are their fullest, Fair Havenite Susan Culbert, in a snapshot, framed them around the moon at its fullest last night. She called the other shot a lace moon view.

A super moon seems larger than the usual full moon because it occurs just at the time when the moon, in its orbit, gets closest to Earth. There are those times when it’s closer, because Earth is a bit elliptical in shape, rather than perfectly round. These moons, because of that, at that point in orbit, look much brighter and bigger here. To be exact, while the average full moon is about 240,000 miles from Earth. Super moons are roughly 22,000 miles closer.

The next super moon is set to rise in the skies on May 26.

Thanks to Susan Culbert for this bella luna view! (Click to enlarge!)

In the meantime, the moon has made way for clear, sunny skies today and tomorrow with a bit of rain toward the end of the week and then back to sun for the weekend.

Check out the National Weather Service’s forecast for the Rumson-Fair Haven area …