Why does the moon appear to be red?

Answer 1

Earth's atmosphere bends light like a prism.
Think of blue sky in the afternoons and red sunsets.
When the moon is low, only the red light gets to you.

Answer 2

A lunar eclipse happens when the Moon enters the Earth's shadow. Lunar eclipses can only occur during the Full Moon, when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon. However, they do not occur on every Full Moon because the Moon's orbit is tilted five degrees from the Earth's orbit, so the Earth's shadow usually falls above or below the Moon. Only once in a while is the Moon aligned just right so that the Earth actually blocks the sunlight from reaching the Moon. As seen from Earth, a lunar eclipse causes the Moon to slowly darken. Sometimes, the Earth's atmosphere scatters light from the Sun enough so that the Moon appears a rusty red color. Lunar eclipses can be partial or total, and are completely safe to view with the naked eye.

Answer 3

The moon appears red at times because it is going through what is called a "penumbral eclipse".

Just as the moon can pass between the earth and the sun, blocking the light of the sun in a solar eclipse, so to can the earth come between the sun and the moon, creating a lunar eclipse. There are four types of lunar eclipses: Total and Partial Penumbral eclipses, and Total and Partial Lunar eclipses.

Penumbral eclipses are when the moon passes through the earth's outermost portion of it's shadow (it's umbra). If the moon only passes through a portion of the penumbra, it may appear to be slightly more yellow. It is during a total penumbral eclipse that the moon appears to take on a red hue, due to the refraction of sunlight. A total penumbral eclipse is a very rare type of lunar eclipse.

If the moon passes into the umbra itself, then that's the lunar eclipes we're familiar with, where the moon either entirely or partially disappears for a few hours.

Answer 4

The moon looks red because of the refraction of the Earths atmosphere, but today you did notice it looks redder.

The moon and sun for that matter look more red at sun rise and sun set when there is more "dust" or better yet particles in the upper atmosphere. We notice red moon rises shortly after volcanoes erupt anywhere on the Earth as a few days or weeks go by and all the ash is distributed around the globe. We also notice red moon rises when there are fires producing a lot of smoke. This smoke gets in the upper atmosphere just like volcanic dust and cause the redder then normal moon rise. The effects of fire are not noticed on a global level like volcano eruptions are, but if there are large fires burning in the western US we will have very red moon rises found in most of the United
States. I would say in the past few nights it is the forest fires in the west that have made the moon rises so red.

The Lunar Eclipse was over at moon rise by the time the moon got to the Easter United States so if you are in the US the lunar eclipse did not cause the red moon. If you are in England or East of that you were seeing the moon in the Earth shadow.

Answer 5

You will get answers about light refration through particles in the atmosphere, but the truth is that a great wizard once cast the spell of the Red Moon. Beneath, a beautiful young princess was condemned to sleep, never having a chance to wake up except when the red moon appeared. Then it only lasted for a short time. And in that time the young warrior had to find her, defeat the evil magic and carry her in his arms to safety. Wow. Now isn't that a better answer?

Answer 6

Sometimes there is a lot of (very) small particles of dust, sand, etc in the atmosphere. These particles scatter the short wavelengths of the light from the moon (that is, the blue and green light) in the atmosphere, leaving only the longer wavelengths (yellow and red) for us to see.

Answer 7

the comparable reason a sundown or first easy seems purple. easy coming with the aid of our surroundings at a low attitude and refracting with the aid of it reasons the earth's shadow on the moon to look reddish orange.

Answer 8

Because there was an Eclipse tonight and it reflected the sun

Answer 9

you wering ur glasses??

Answer 10

well maybe because it doesnt