• Question: what colour is the moon?

    Asked by chlostyles11 to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      A light grey colour – basically the same colour you see when you look at it.

    • Photo: Susana Teixeira

      Susana Teixeira answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      The colour that we see can change depending on how high or low in the horizon it is. This changes how much atmosphere does the light reflected by the moon have to cross before it gets to your eyes. If it goes through more air particles, which scatter some wavelengths more than others, this can create a filter effect and change the colour you see.

      Apparently the native colour is grey-ish though… or whatever kind of cheese it is? 😉

    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      Looks pretty grey to me. Twice a year you can get a harvest and hunters moons though. A harvest moon is the full moon closes to the autumnal equinox and the hunters moon is the full moon after that. During this time the moon hangs quite low in the sky and can be any colour between a dull orange to a really bright red. The moon appears red because of the way the light is scattered off the moon and refracted in the atmosphere.

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