New Zealand will get its biggest and brightest moon sighting this year as a 'super pink moon' lights up the sky on Wednesday night.
It will mark New Zealand's second super moon of 2020, having already had one in February - but it will be our last for over a year, with the next not due until April 2021.
The moon will be at perigee-syzygy (its closest point to Earth) at 2:35pm on Wednesday (NZ time), when it'll be just 356,907 kilometres away. However the best time to view it will be from about 6:27pm, when it first rises in the sky to the east.
The lunar phenomenon will be most visible to those in the North Island, as rain over the island is anticipated to clear by evening. In the South Island, however, those in coastal areas will have their view blocked by clouds.
But the good news for South Islanders is that while a 'super pink moon' sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, you won't actually be missing a magenta-coloured moon.
The lunar event's flashy name is just a reflection of the time of year it's appearing in our skies. April is spring in the Northern Hemisphere, which brings the first blooms of the year for the fuschia-hued wild ground phlox in North America.
However an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History promises it will be "bright and brilliant and absolutely gorgeous" despite the absence of a pink colour.
Jackie Faherty also told Space.com that this latest super moon presents a good opportunity to teach your children a thing or two about the phases of the moon.
"This is an invitation for everybody to become that moon expert, be the person in that small group that can differentiate when the moon is just a little bit brighter," she said.
If you can't get a clear view of the super pink moon, you can watch a livestream of it on the Virtual Telescope Project.
