The 19 Apr. 2019 “pink” full Moon and its show above Rome
Once again, the 19 Apr. full Moon was a superb show above Rome at its rise. Nicknamed “pink” full Moon from the color of a flower very common in North America this time of the year, it showed some pink/reddish hue at its rise, but only because of the filtering effects of our atmosphere. And this was great to see.
The 19 Apr. 2019 full Moon rises soon after sunset. Its “pink” color is a effect of our atmosphere
As we like to remind to our friends, the full Moon rises at sunset, being the Sun and the full Moon on opposite directions, as seen from our planet. So, to capture our satellite as soon as it pops up in the sky you need a clear Eastern horizon, with no obstacles. I managed to plan an imaging session from Rome, choosing the Monte Mario hill, from where I had a nice view on East, with the outskirts of Rome on the foreground and the mounts (a few tens of km away) on the background.
As always, I managed to reach the selected place well in advance, to carefully set up my imaging gear: a Canon 5D mark IV DSLR body and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, perfect for the work. All this was properly installed on a heavy duty Manfrotto tripod.
The author, ready to image the rising full Moon
I managed to calculate the exact direction where the Moon was going to show, so I monitored it with great attention. At 08:00PM local time our satellite rose and an handful of minutes later I could have the first glimpse of our satellite, behind the mounts. It was only 1 degree above the horizon.
Since it showed up, the Moon had a pink/reddish hue, but of course this had nothing to do with the “pink” nickname used in the Northern Hemisphere to call the April full Moon This nickname comes from the return of pink wildflowers in this time of the year. The color I could see (and you can see it every time the Moon is very low above the horizon, at its rise, for example) was an effect of our atmosphere, the same making our Sun red at sunset/sunrise: the tick atmosphere the light crosses when an object is very low absorbs most of its colors, the red one surviving much better, hence the dominant hue. Needless to say, it was a superb view.
Some clouds were hanging just above the Moon, so our satellite was soon covered by them, offering a different show. It was really very beautiful.
The 19 Apr. 2019 full Moon shines across the clouds.
The sky is always ready to amaze us, so stay tuned for more fun and beauty!
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