Kolkata:
Will the Moon look Pink tonight? Friday, April 22, which is a full moon day, a phenomenon will take place called the ‘Mini Moon’. This will occur again only after 15 years. Tonight, to the delight of sky gazers the moon will become smaller in size and will reportedly look pink in colour. The moon will be at apogee at 9:35 IST Friday night. An apogee is the farthest point in Moon’s orbit around the earth. It is at a distance of around 4,06,350 km from the earth. The moon is about 3,84,000 km away from the earth if we talk about the average distance.
“When the full moon happens it will still be very close to its farthest point from the earth. So it will be smaller than an average full moon,” Debiprosad Duari, Director of M P Birla Planetarium, Kolkata, said.
Though, sky-gazers, could not see the ‘Mini Moon’ phenomenon that occurred at 10:55 AM today due to daylight. However, when they will watch it at night, the ‘Mini Moon’ will only be a shade lighter, Duari said.
The ‘Mini Moon’ phenomenon will occur next time on December 10, 2030, he said. The colour will be silvery pearl and not any shade of pink or green as rumoured over the internet Duari said. The Mini Moon will be 14 per cent smaller in size compared to supermoon, a phenomenon when the moon is nearest to the earth.
