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Red Moon and how does a moon become red

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:58 am
by Moonwatcher
I was Just wondering has anybody seen a Red Moon or Blood Moon
I remember seen my first one i think it was last last year.

The other question is how does a moon become red i had two versions
one was when the cloud goes red from the sun setting and the it reflects on the moon.
The other one was the sun's brightness reflects on to the moon casting a red glow.
Any thoughts............ :?

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:35 am
by takyoji
Here's a little part of the wiki from Wikipedia on it.
Wikipedia wrote:The red colouring arises because sunlight reaching the Moon must pass through a long and dense layer of the Earth's atmosphere, where it is scattered. Shorter wavelengths are more likely to be scattered by the small particles, and so by the time the light has passed through the atmosphere, the longer wavelengths dominate. This resulting light we perceive as red. This is the same effect that causes sunsets and sunrises to turn the sky a reddish colour; an alternative way of considering the problem is to realise that, as viewed from the Moon, the Sun would appear to be setting (or rising) behind the Earth.
And here's a little diagram to show the optics of it all of what it's explaining: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Luna ... optics.jpg

I'm kind of in a rush though, as I can't really write a whole long post about it as I have to leave shortly for the day anyway. Hope that clears it up a little.