A so-called pink supermoon is set to brighten up the skies tonight.
It will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year - but, despite its name, it will not appear to be pink in colour.
Instead, the name originates from an old farmers' almanac - referring to herb moss pink, a flower native to the US that is associated with the beginning of spring.
David Moore from Astronomy Ireland said the early hours of tomorrow morning will be the 'official' full moon, but it will also look particularly large early tonight.
Speaking on Lunchtime Live, he explained that a so-called 'moon illusion' when the moon is rising "tricks the eye and brain" to make the moon look twice as big.
He observed: "This supermoon really is a bit bigger, and it's going to look [even] bigger when it's low down due to the 'moon illusion', as it's called.
"The moon is expected, from Ireland, to rise within a few minutes of 7:30pm - [but] it'll still be bright and the sun won't have quite set.
"But as the moon comes up and the sun goes down, you'll see this lovely big moon hovering over the eastern horizon... and as it gets really dark, the moon will rise higher."
He noted the supermoon was 'quite spectacular' and 'almost painfully bright' last night, but officially the full moon is overnight at around 3:30am.
For anyone looking to view the moon tonight, he said 8:30pm or so will be a good opportunity while the moon is still low in the sky.
