The night sky was ablaze with moonlight on Saturday, April 12, 2025, as the first full moon of spring — known as the pink moon — rose in dusk. Also the smallest full moon of the year, it wasn’t pink in color, instead appearing in the east as an orange orb.
Here are all the best images of April’s full pink moon from around the world, from San Francisco to Istanbul, Kashmir and Sydney.
Named after the pink phlox flowers that bloom in spring in parts of North America rather than for the moon’s color, April’s pink moon reached its full phase at 8:23 p.m. EDT, aligning almost perfectly with moonrise in parts of North America.
As it appeared in the east, Earth’s atmosphere dimmed and reddened its light, causing its surface to glow in subtle orangey hues. Like all full moons viewed at moonrise, its size was exaggerated, not by physics but by the “moon illusion” — tricks on our perception when the moon is near the horizon phenomenon that makes the full moon seem bigger than it is.
Even that illusion was stretched during the appearance of this, the smallest full moon of the year. That happened because the moon’s orbit of Earth is slightly elliptical. That means there’s always a date when it’s closest to Earth (perigee) and farthest (apogee).
A perigee full moon is better known as a “supermoon,” which looks slightly bigger than average, while an apogee full moon — sometimes called a “micro” moon — looks somewhat smaller than average. The latter scenario describes April’s full pink moon.
April’s full moon was this year considered the “Paschal Moon,” the full moon used to calculate the date of Easter Sunday. It traditionally falls on the Sunday after the first moon after the Spring equinox, which occurred on March 20 this year.
The moon reached fullness on April 13 in Universal Time, but on April 12 only in North American time zones, meaning Easter was set for Sunday, April 20, 2025. The next full moon, the flower moon, will occur on Monday, May 12, 2025.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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