NASA notes that the next full moon is going to be a legendary spectacle

The next full moon is the Pink Moon, the Sprouting Grass, Egg, or Fish Moon; the Pesach, Passover, or Paschal Moon; the Hanuman Jayanti Festival Moon; and Bak Poya.

The next full moon will be on Saturday afternoon, April 16, 2022, appearing opposite the Sun in Earth-based longitude at 2:55 p.m. EDT. This will be on Sunday morning from the India Standard Time Zone eastward across the rest of Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Ocean to the International Date Line.

The Moon will appear full for about three days centered on this time, from early Friday morning through early Monday morning, making this a full moon weekend.

One Moon, Many Names

In the 1930s the Maine Farmer’s Almanac began publishing Native American names for the Moon each month of the year. According to this almanac – as the full moon in April – this is the Pink Moon, named after the herb moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, moss phlox, or mountain phlox, a plant native to the eastern U.S. that is one of the earliest widespread flowers of spring. Other names for this Moon include the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Fish Moon, as this was when the shad swam upstream to spawn.

This is also the Pesach or Passover Moon. Pesach or Passover begins at sundown on Friday, April 15, and ends at nightfall on Saturday, April 23, 2022. The Seder feasts are on the first two evenings of Passover.

In the Christian ecclesiastical calendar, this is the Paschal Moon, from which the date of Easter is calculated. Paschal is the Latinized version of Pesach. Generally, the Christian holiday of Easter, also called Pascha, is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. However, there are differences between the times of these astronomical events and the calendars used by the Eastern and Western churches.

This is one of the years where these differences matter. Western Christianity will be celebrating Easter on Sunday, April 17, 2022, the Sunday after this first full moon of spring. Eastern Christianity will celebrate Eastern Orthodox Easter a week later on Sunday, April 24.

For Hindus, this full moon corresponds with Hanuman Jayanti, the celebration of the birth of Lord Hanuman, celebrated in most areas on the full moon day of the Hindu lunar month of Chaitra.

For Buddhists, especially in Sri Lanka, this full moon is Bak Poya, commemorating when the Buddha visited Sri Lanka and settled a dispute between chiefs, avoiding a war.

The Moon and Calendars

In many traditional lunisolar calendars, the months change with the new moon and full moons fall in the middle of the lunar months. This full moon is in the middle of the third month of the Chinese calendar.

In the Islamic calendar, the months start with the first sighting of the waxing crescent moon shortly after the new moon. This full moon is near the middle of the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is honored as the month in which the Quran was revealed. Observing this annual month of charitable acts, prayer, and fasting from dawn to sunset is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

As usual, the wearing of suitably celebratory celestial attire is encouraged in honor of the full moon. Enjoy the spring flowers, consider acts of charity, leave an extra seat at the table, and try to avoid starting any wars.

Current Moon Phasehttps://solarsystem.nasa.gov/__webgl/5/moon_lunarUse this tool to see the current Moon phase and to plan ahead for other Moon views. Credit: NASA

Summary of Celestial Events

Here’s a summary of other celestial events between now and the full moon after next (with specific times and angles based on the location of NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.):

As spring begins, the daily periods of sunlight continue to lengthen, having changed at their fastest around the spring equinox on March 20. On Saturday, April 16, 2022 (the day of the full moon), morning twilight will begin at 5:30 a.m. EDT, sunrise will be at 6:30 a.m., solar noon will be at 1:07:49 p.m. when the Sun will reach its maximum altitude of 61.42 degrees, sunset will be at 7:46 p.m., and evening twilight will end at 8:47 p.m. By Monday, May 16 (the day of the full moon after next), morning twilight will begin at 4:48 a.m., sunrise will be at 5:55 a.m., solar noon will be at 1:04:27 p.m. when the Sun will reach its maximum altitude of 70.33 degrees, sunset will be at 8:15 p.m., and evening twilight will end at 9:22 p.m.

Chance to See a Comet

There is a slight chance that Comet C/2021 O3 (PANSTARRS) will be visible in the evening sky in early May. Falling toward the Sun from the coldest reaches of the solar system, this comet is expected to make its first and last pass by the Sun – passing well within the orbit of Mercury – on April 21, 2022, after which it will speed on its way out of the solar system forever, passing closest to Earth on May 8. The last observations used to make this prediction are from early February, as this comet is now too close to the Sun to observe.

We don’t know if this comet will survive passing close to the Sun without breaking up (many similar comets have broken up under similar conditions). If it does survive, it is unclear how much gas and dust it will be giving off in early May. If it doesn’t break up and is giving off lots of gas or dust, then we might be able to see it (probably requiring a backyard telescope or binoculars). Most likely, we will not be able to see it at all, but pay attention to the news, as it may surprise us!

Brief Window to See a Meteor Shower

The Eta-Aquariids (031 ETA) will peak early on the morning of May 6, 2022. This meteor shower gets its name from the constellation Aquarius, as the meteors appear to radiate out from a point (called the radiant) in this constellation (for much the same reason that snowflakes appear to radiate out from one point when you are driving in a snowstorm). The higher in the sky the radiant is, the more meteors you should be able to see. Since the radiant for this meteor shower only rises a few hours before dawn, there will be a fairly short window to look for these meteors.

For the Washington, D.C.-area, the radiant will rise above the eastern horizon around 2:40 a.m. EDT, the predicted peak meteor rate for this year will be around 4 a.m., and the first hints of dawn will start interfering with seeing these meteors after about 4:30 a.m.

For locations farther north, the window for viewing these meteors shortens or vanishes altogether, as this shower is best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere. The International Meteor Organization’s 2022 Meteor Shower Calendar shows that the observed peak rates have been trending down in recent years, from 85 visible meteors per hour in 2008 to 45 visible meteors per hour last year, so it’s hard to predict what the peak rate will be this year. According to the IMO Calendar, in past years this shower has shown a fairly broad peak, with rates near 30 visible meteors per hour (under ideal conditions) for several mornings around the peak, so if you’re out in the early mornings around this date, you might catch a meteor or two. These meteors are caused by debris from Halley’s Comet entering our atmosphere at 148,000 miles per hour (66 kilometers per second).

Ideal conditions for viewing these meteors would be if the weather is clear with no clouds or high hazes, after moonset but before any sign of dawn interferes. Go to a place far from any light sources or urban light pollution, and find a clear view of a wide expanse of the sky. Be sure to give your eyes plenty of time to adapt to the dark. The rod cells in your eyes are more sensitive to low light levels but play little role in color vision. Your color-sensing cone cells are concentrated near the center of your view with more of the rod cells on the edge of your view. Since some meteors are faint, you will tend to see more meteors from the “corner of your eye” (which is why you need a view of a large part of the sky). Your color vision (cone cells) will adapt to darkness in about 10 minutes, but your more sensitive night vision rod cells will continue to improve for an hour or more (with most of the improvement in the first 35 to 45 minutes). The more sensitive your eyes are, the more chance you have of seeing meteors. Even a short exposure to light (from passing car headlights, etc.) will start the adaptation over again so no turning on a light or your cell phone to check what time it is!

Several other meteor showers will peak during this lunar cycle but are not well suited for viewing from our more urban Northern Hemisphere locations this year, so I’ve not put them in my detailed listing below. If you’re interested in these meteor showers, you can search by name or look up the International Meteor Organization’s 2022 Meteor Shower Calendar. Here are the names: The Lyrids (006 LYR) are expected to peak on the morning of April 22 when moonlight will interfere. The Pi-Puppids (137 PPU) will peak the next morning but are best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, have an uncertain peak rate, and also will have interference from moonlight. The Eta-Lyrids (145 ELY) will peak on the morning of May 10 but are only expected to produce about 3 meteors per hour.

Total Lunar Eclipse in May

With the full moon after next, we will have a total eclipse of the Moon, peaking early on Monday morning, May 16, 2022. The Moon will begin entering the partial shadow of Earth at 9:32 p.m. EDT on Sunday night, May 15, but the slight darkening of the Moon will not stand out until the Moon starts entering the full shadow of the Earth at 10:28 p.m. It will take until 11:29 p.m. for the full shadow of Earth to cover the Moon. The peak of the eclipse will be at 12:11 a.m. on Monday morning, May 16. The Moon will begin emerging from the full shadow of the Earth at 12:54 a.m. and finish emerging from the full shadow at 1:55 a.m. The Moon will finish exiting the partial shadow at 2:51 a.m., but the subtle shading from this last part of the eclipse will be difficult to notice.

Evening Sky Highlights

On the evening of Saturday, April 16, 2022 – the day of the full moon – as evening twilight ends at 8:47 p.m. EDT, the full moon will appear about 9 degrees above the east-southeastern horizon with the bright star Spica about 9 degrees to the upper right of the Moon. The bright planet Mercury will appear only 2 degrees above the west-northwestern horizon. The bright stars of the local arm of our home galaxy will appear spread along the west-southwestern horizon. Sirius, the brightest of the stars in our night sky, will appear 24 degrees above the southwestern horizon. The bright star appearing nearest overhead will be Pollux (the brighter of the twin stars in the constellation Gemini) at 68 degrees above the west-southwestern horizon. Pollux is an orange-tinted star about 34 lightyears from Earth. It is not quite twice the mass of our Sun but about 9 times the diameter and 33 times the brightness.

As the lunar cycle progresses the background of stars will appear to shift westward each evening, although it is actually the Earth that is moving around the Sun toward the East. The planet Mercury will appear to shift in the opposite direction, appearing higher above the west-northwestern horizon each evening until April 28, after which it will start shifting toward the horizon. May 11 will be the last evening that Mercury will appear above the horizon as evening twilight ends, although Mercury may remain visible in the glow of dusk before evening twilight ends until around the evening of the full moon after next. The waxing moon will appear to the upper left of Mercury on May 2 (with the bright star Aldebaran about 7 degrees to the left of the Moon), to the lower left of the bright star Pollux on May 6, above the bright star Regulus on May 9, and to the upper left of the bright star Spica on May 13.

By the evening of Monday, May 16, 2022 – the day of the full moon after next – as evening twilight ends at 8:47 p.m. EDT – the full moon will just be rising above the east-southeastern horizon, and the bright star Antares will rise to the lower right of the Moon about 10 minutes later. The constellation Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear or the Big Dipper, will appear nearly overhead in the northern sky. No particularly bright star will appear near to directly overhead, the highest being Regulus at 54 degrees above the southwestern horizon, with Arcturus a close second at 53 degrees above the east-southeastern horizon.

Morning Sky Highlights

On the morning of Saturday, April 16, 2022 (the day of the full moon), as morning twilight begins at 5:30 a.m. EDT, four of the five visible planets will appear in a line above the east-southeastern horizon, with Saturn to the upper right at 15 degrees above the southeastern horizon, Mars at 12 degrees above the east-southeastern horizon, Venus at 8 degrees above the east-southeastern horizon, and Jupiter to the lower left at 2 degrees above the eastern horizon. The full moon will appear 11 degrees above the west-southwestern horizon with the bright star Spica to the lower left of the Moon. The bright star appearing closest to overhead will be Vega at 83 degrees above the eastern horizon. Vega is the 5th brightest star in our night sky and the brightest of the three stars in the Summer Triangle. Vega is about twice as massive as our Sun, 40 times brighter, and about 25 light-years from us.

As the lunar cycle progresses, the background of stars along with Jupiter and Saturn will appear to shift westward each morning, while Venus and Mars will appear to shift the opposite way. The waning gibbous moon will appear near the bright star Antares on the morning of April 19, 2022. The Moon will join the lineup of planets in the morning sky on April 23, and will shift along this line, appearing near the planet Saturn on April 25, Mars on April 26, and Venus and Jupiter on April 27. The two brightest of the planets, Venus and Jupiter, will appear only half a degree apart on the mornings of April 30 and May 1, visible about 7 degrees above the eastern horizon as morning twilight begins. May 1 and 2 will be the mornings when the bright star Vega will appear almost exactly overhead as morning twilight begins (for the Washington, D.C. area and similar latitudes). As mentioned above, the Eta-Aquariids (031 ETA) will peak early on the morning of May 6, with the radiant for this meteor shower rising around 2:40 a.m. and the first hints of dawn interfering sometime after 4:30 a.m.

By the morning of Monday, May 16, 2022 (the day of the full moon after next), as morning twilight begins at 4:48 a.m. EDT, four visible planets will appear in a line above the east-southeastern horizon, with Saturn to the upper right at 26 degrees above the southeastern horizon, Mars at 16 degrees above the east-southeastern horizon, Jupiter at 13 degrees above the east-southeastern horizon, and Venus to the lower left at 6 degrees above the eastern horizon. The full moon will appear 12 degrees above the southwestern horizon. The “Summer Triangle” will appear directly overhead, with the bright star Vega appearing closest to overhead at 83 degrees above the western horizon.