why is it the full moon looks orange when it rises????????
By ordecai
@ordecai (46)
Philippines
April 22, 2010 12:40pm CST
One time when i visit my friends house,,they invited me for a dinner along with her six years old son...just the three of us..After the dinner we unwind outside of her house,we stayed in their house balcony.we chatted about life,,her life as a mother and then suddenly her son had intervened us and her a questioned "Mom why is it when it full moon it looks orange when it rises?" I was choked by that questioned while Im sipping my tea,,,,and her mother laugh out loud...and said its a funny thing..
well after that moment when i go home i called m friend and asked what was the answer and she said u can find the answer in a movie..when i watched it its absolutely correct,,do you know the answer?tell me..if u know...
4 responses
@drkraven (521)
• Romania
22 Apr 10
The reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight must pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead.. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the blue, green, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. That's why you only see yellow, orange, or red.The moon can have an orange color at any time of the year. Sometimes the moon appears orange even when it's directly overhead. This occurs when there's a lot of dust, smoke, or pollution in the atmosphere. The size of those particles will determine the type of color you will see.
@catalyser (531)
• Malaysia
23 Apr 10
I believe this phenomenon could be quantified using the Rayleigh Equation, correct me if I am wrong
@Christoph56 (1504)
• Canada
22 Apr 10
Its the same reason why the sun looks that color when it's lowering or rising. The reason is because it's shining through our atmosphere, and when the sun or moon are lateral with us, it passes through far more atmosphere, pushing it to another point on the color spectrum. This is why, when the sun is setting, you see reds, orange and yellow shooting up from the sun, then in the sky you see more blue, indigo and violet. It's like passing light through a prism, or how rainbows are made when light passes through large amounts of liquid, floating in the sky.
