What was up with the moon last night?

vulcan57

Last night I noticed the moon to be very dark almost coppery, thinking it was a Lunar eclipse I grabbed the camera. By the time I got the camera out it had started to lighten a bit. This was taken at around 21.30 last night, apologies for the quality, but to think it was even darker than this 10 mins earlier. I've checked to see if there was an eclipse but none listed, the next being Apr 25th.

ZeRoY

Worm moon:

http://bernews.com/2013/03/full-worm-moon-graces-the-night-sky/

Mickeroo

It just looks coppery when it's lower in the sky, as it gets higher it lightens.

locum-motion

ZeRoY wrote: »

Worm moon:

http://bernews.com/2013/03/full-worm-moon-graces-the-night-sky/

Your 'worm moon' answer does not answer the question asked. It's completely irrelevant to the colour that the moon appears to have in the photo.

vulcan57

Mickeroo wrote: »

It just looks coppery when it's lower in the sky, as it gets higher it lightens.

Normally it rises very bright against the cityscape and doesn't change that much as it gets higher. I wasn't the only one to see this, in fact it was my son that pointed it out after his friend mentioned it while talking to him on the phone.

Squeaky the Squirrel

Wasn't that colour for me????

Edit:Never mind, just saw time in post their.

mickmackey1

Seems to be a March phenomenon, saw it myself 12 months ago - purely the result of atmospheric conditions.

Popoutman

A thick cloud layer of large amorphous ice crystals will cause this colour. Scattering the blue light away, leaving the red to come through.

I noticed the same colour myself last night. Odd but not that unusual.

locum-motion

locum-motion wrote: »

Your 'worm moon' answer does not answer the question asked. It's completely irrelevant to the colour that the moon appears to have in the photo.

A further elaboration of my previous rushed answer:

The full moons that occur in each month have different names in legend/tradition. See here
"Worm moon" simply means "The full moon in March"

The red/copper colour of the moon was due - as others have said - to the fact that it was low in the sky; completely unrelated to the fact that it's March/the worm moon. See halfway down this article, where it says

The atmosphere preferentially scatters the bluish component of moonlight, which is really reflected white light from the sun, while allowing more of the reddish component of the light to pass though to one's eyes. Hence all celestial bodies look reddish when they are low in the sky.

MeteoritesEire

noticed it myself last night as did a friend 30 miles away.Looked green to me but I'm colour blind

ZeRoY

locum-motion wrote: »

Your 'worm moon' answer does not answer the question asked. It's completely irrelevant to the colour that the moon appears to have in the photo.

I had read an another article with more explanation on the coloring (explained in one of the above post) and it was also named worm moon then.

ps200306

The moon is red when rising and setting for the same reason as the sun -- shining through a thicker layer of atmosphere and particulate matter that scatters the blue end of the spectrum. Anything that enhances the amount of particulates will increase the redness of the moon/sun rise/set. Someone mentioned ice crystals earlier. It can also be caused by volcanic eruptions -- we had it during the Icelandic one a couple of years back but volcanoes much further afield can do it too.

Another fairly frequent cause is Saharan dust which we get in summer when the Azores high pressure zone sends us warm dry winds directly from the south. You'll often see a layer of very fine yellow dust on cars when that happens. I wonder if these almost continuous east winds we've been having could be carrying dust from the Gobi? I've never heard of such a thing, but would be interested if anyone knows if its possible.

Finally, it can be caused by very local pollution, resulting from a temperature inversion condition. This is where a layer of colder air lies near ground level -- the opposite of the normal condition where the air is heated by the ground below and is warmer than the air at altitude. A temperature inversion suppresses normal convection, so that particulate matter is trapped at lower levels. Since it normally happens in cold weather, it used to result in all the gunk from coal fires hanging around, before we banned bituminous coal, although that doesn't entirely cure the problem. You can get an inversion at a front where a wedge of warm air rides in over cold air at ground level -- similar to the battle we've had over the country recently between Atlantic air to the south west and continental air to the north east.