orange moon tonight - why?

[rightguard]

anyone know why the moon looks lovely orangy colour tonight?

im tempted to haul my gear down to get a pic

[ollypenrice]

Red light has the longest visible light wavelength and blue the shortest. The longer wavelengths make it through the atmosphere best, the shortest the worst, so red is the last to be scattered around.

When your line of sight to the moon passes through an atmosphere which is not at its thinnest and clearest then the object you're looking at will be reddened. (The bluer components of its light will be scattered.)

This can happen when the object is low and seen through more atmosphere or because there is a lot of, ice, dust, volcanic ash, smog, or whatever up there getting in the way. I dare say you'd rather it be ice particles than smog, perhaps... (But then again, if you've gone out in shorts and a T shirt, maybe not!!)

Olly

[rightguard]

thnks olly.

it snowed a couple of nights ago and its been freezing since, so i guess its mainly ice