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APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 5:05 am
by APOD Robot
Colors of the Moon
Explanation: What color is the Moon? It depends on the night. Outside of the Earth's atmosphere, the
dark Moon, which shines by reflected sunlight, appears a
magnificently brown-tinged gray. Viewed from inside the
Earth's atmosphere, though, the moon can appear quite different. The featured image highlights a collection of apparent colors of the full moon documented by one astrophotographer over 10 years from
different locations across
Italy. A
red or yellow colored moon usually indicates a moon seen near the horizon. There, some of the
blue light has been scattered away by a long path through the
Earth's atmosphere, sometimes laden with fine dust. A
blue-colored moon is more rare and can indicate a moon seen through an atmosphere carrying larger dust particles. What created the purple moon is
unclear -- it may be a combination of several effects. The last image captures the
total lunar eclipse of 2018 July -- where the moon,
in Earth's shadow, appeared a
faint red -- due to light
refracted through
air around the
Earth. The next full moon will occur at the end of this month (
moon-th) and is known in some cultures as the
Beaver Moon.
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 10:40 am
by Ann
I would have loved to see that blue Moon.
Or rather, those blue Moons.
Ann
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 12:35 pm
by XgeoX
Ann wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 10:40 am
I would have loved to see that blue Moon.
Or rather, those blue Moons.
Ann
Blue moon
you saw me standing alone
without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own...
Eric
![😽](//cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/twitter/twemoji@latest/assets/svg/1f63d.svg)
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 12:36 pm
by abrinkman
Beautifully curated pictures...and for the photographer, a great way to revisit 10 years of his work in one view. Very nice...
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 2:10 pm
by dickzland
The moon image in outer ring at 10:30 location - cannot be taken from Italy, but much farther North.
Or the image was rotated after being taken. The 'southern highlands' on the moon, for USA observers is around 5:00 location.
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 2:16 pm
by Chris Peterson
dickzland wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 2:10 pm
The moon image in outer ring at 10:30 location - cannot be taken from Italy, but much farther North.
Or the image was rotated after being taken. The 'southern highlands' on the moon, for USA observers is around 5:00 location.
The 5:00 location with respect to what? The Moon rotates about 180° as it crosses the sky from rise to set. Assuming these images were taken at all different times from rise to set, most have been rotated in order to make them have about the same orientation with respect to each other.
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 3:43 pm
by Sa Ji Tario
The dream of children, collection of colored balls.
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 5:24 pm
by orin stepanek
Mommy those balls are pretty!!!
![🔴](//cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/twitter/twemoji@latest/assets/svg/1f534.svg)
🟠 🟡 🟢
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 10:02 pm
by neufer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_is_made_of_green_cheese wrote:
<<"The Moon is made of green cheese" is a statement referring to a fanciful belief that the Moon is composed of cheese. In its original formulation as a proverb and metaphor for credulity with roots in fable, this refers to the perception of a simpleton who sees a reflection of the Moon in water and mistakes it for a round cheese wheel. It is widespread as a folkloric motif among many of the world's cultures.
"The Moon is made of green cheese" was one of the most popular proverbs in 16th and 17th-century English literature, and it was also in use after this time. It likely originated in this formulation in 1546, when The Proverbs of John Heywood claimed "the moon is made of a greene cheese."
Sean M. Carroll explained why there was no need to "sample the moon to know it's not made of cheese." He said the hypothesis is "absurd", failing against our knowledge of the universe and, "This is not a proof, there is no metaphysical proof, like you can proof a statement in logic or math that the moon is not made of green cheese. But science nevertheless passes judgments on claims based on how well they fit in with the rest of our theoretical understanding."
Notwithstanding this uncontrovertible argument, the harmonic signature of moon rock—the seismic velocity at which shockwaves travel—is said to be closer to cheese than to any rock on earth. Dennis Lindley used the myth to help explain the necessity of Cromwell's rule in Bayesian probability: "In other words, if a decision-maker thinks something cannot be true and interprets this to mean it has zero probability, he will never be influenced by any data, which is surely absurd. So leave a little probability for the moon being made of green cheese; it can be as small as 1 in a million, but have it there since otherwise an army of astronauts returning with samples of the said cheese will leave you unmoved.">>
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:09 am
by MarkBour
'Tis a beautiful collection!
It would be interesting to see them plotted according to the altitude angle at which they were taken. As a crude measure, some of the most red images show the Moon as vertically squeezed, indicating they were probably taken with the Moon near the horizon. The unusual purple image is also somewhat squeezed, so maybe it was also low in the sky.
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Sun May 05, 2024 3:12 am
by JEJG
Marcella Giulia Pace, in her blog (
https://greenflash.photo/portfolio/colors-of-the-moon/), describes the shooting conditions of the Purple Moon. This phenomenon was observed in Sicily at the end of July 2021. The moon was low on the horizon, which would normally explain a red color. NASA explains that the blue moon phenomenon can be attributed to the moon being seen through an atmosphere carrying large dust particles. The combination of blue light and red moonlight could account for the violet/magenta color of the moon. This color was observable for 5 minutes when the moon was low on the horizon and the sun was low on the horizon opposite it. At the same time, several forest fires were present in Sicily. These fires could have generated particles at low altitude, resulting in a blue tint to the moon. With its low position on the horizon, implying a red hue, the combination could ostensibly explain the purple color of the moon under these conditions.
Re: APOD: Colors of the Moon (2020 Nov 11)
Posted: Mon May 13, 2024 12:37 pm
by Astro_mark
In its simplicity, this image is both artistic and scientific. the colors of the Moon catch the eye.
I would like to understand a little more what the magenta color of the central moon is due to. I will check Marcella's blog. Perhaps it is a Moon low on the horizon with this coloration that the author lightened to make the color effect more visible.