Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2020 November 11

                             Colors of the Moon
               Image Credit & Copyright: Marcella Giulia Pace

   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.

                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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