This story was published on Wednesday, April 1.
Actually, tonight's full pink moon won't be pink at all.
It will be the same golden hue as every other full moon.
The pink moon was so called by ancient Indigenous peoples because it appeared fully illuminated around the same time the tiny phlox subulata flower blooms pink.
If you don't want to use the scientific Latin name, the plant is also known as moss pink and it blooms in pretty, ground-hugging clusters early every spring.
By the way, all this full pink moon scrutiny is not an April Fools' joke.
It really is the full pink moon tonight at 7:11 pm in British Columbia.
The pink moon is always the first full moon after the arrival of spring.
This year the spring equinox was March 20.
Another date tied to spring and the full pink moon is Easter.
It's called the movable feast because it doesn't happen on a fixed date every year, instead, it's timed to the first Sunday after the first full moon following the astronomical arrival of spring.
If this is all too much detail for you, simply look up tonight and marvel at the spectacle that is the full pink moon.
The official time of full illumination is 7:11 pm, but you can spy it before or after that and it will still appear completely full.
The best time to view the full pink moon in all its glory will be early in the evening because it will appear larger near the horizon due to moon illusion -- the term given to the optical illusion that is more of a trick of the brain that it is any type of atmospheric magnification.
Tonight's weather forecast for most of British Columbia is cloudy.
So, you might only get an obstructed view or, god forbid, no view of the full pink moon.
If tonight's sighting isn't perfect, the pink moon will appear full over the next couple of nights as the weather clears.
By the way, the full pink moon can also go by a host of other names all tied into the new spring season -- breaking ice moon, budding moon, red grass moon, frog moon, ducks-come-back moon, geese-lay-eggs moon and sucker moon (not because the moon is gullible, but because spring is a good time to catch and eat the sucker fish).
The next full moon will be May 1's flower moon.
Thumbnail photos by Gary Fultz and Neven Krcmarek on Unsplash
