A pink supermoon has graced skylines around the world.
The first of 2021, the moon is pink in name only, and occurs when it is at its closest angle towards Earth in its orbit.
“A supermoon occurs when a full moon coincides with the Moon being near a point within its orbit known as perigee. Perigee is the closest point that the moon comes to Earth within its orbit,” Josh Kirkley, astronomy educator at Auckland’s Stardome Observatory told 1 NEWS yesterday.
The moon reached its closest point to New Zealand at about 3.30pm yesterday, according to astronomer and director of Otago Museum Ian Griffin. The moon became visible firstly in the eastern parts of the country at about 5.30pm.
"There is always a lot of fuss about supermoons," Griffin says, "but in fact it only varies in size by 14 per cent over the course of the year.
"At its closest point (3.30pm) the moon will be 357,615 km away," Griffin told 1 NEWS, saying that when a full moon has come within 90 per cent of its closest approach to Earth, the term "supermoon" is used.
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