This month's full moon, which falls on Thursday, April 25, has been known as a  "pink moon" in old stories. It is called a pink moon beause of the wild ground phlox that is a common early spring wildflower. The full moon will not look pink for most of the world, but in Europe, Africa, and much of Asia, there will also be a lunar eclipse that night.

Regrettably, in North America, the eclipse will not be visible. The full moon will occur when it is still light in North America and the moon is below the horizon. The moon will start to meet the Earth's shadow around 2:04 PM GMT. The moon will be in a full eclipse about two hours later, setting over Japan, and beginning to rise over Ireland.

For those living where they will be able to see the event, a dark shadow will cover the moon gradually, but there will still be some light visible. The penumbra will cause the moon to be a reddish or a darker gray, but to the untrained eye, it may not be visible. It will peak at 4:07 PM EDT. Around this time, the topmost edge of the moon may appear smudged or tarnished. This effect will be gone by around 5 PM EDT. The moon will look normal when it rises in the US and across North America.