A ‘Flower Supermoon’ and a Lunar Eclipse Are Happening in May

April showers bring May… flower supermoons, apparently. The rare flower supermoon will take place at the same time as the first observable lunar eclipse since 2019, making it a lunar twofer that might be worth staying up late or waking up early to see.

Taking place on Wednesday, May 26, the flower supermoon marks the moment when the moon is the closest to Earth that it will be at any point in 2021. It’s one of just a couple supermoon nights of the whole year, when the moon appears bigger and brighter than usual – assuming you’re viewing through a clear sky, of course.

Making this extra special is the coincidence with a lunar eclipse. While the eclipse will take a total of three hours, CNN reports, it will be observable to us here on Earth for a span of about 15 minutes. In North America, those 15 minutes will fall in the morning hours, around 4:15 a.m. Pacific Time.

During the eclipse, expect the moon to take on a reddish or pinkish tint, perhaps like a spring flower – but that isn’t the true origin of the name. Instead, the flower supermoon moniker, traced back to the Anishnaabe people, is a reference to the growing season.