Why Moon is Red in Color? Antwerp Skies Belgium

Could you guess this is a setting moon? I woke up early to capture a good sunrise in Antwerp, Belgium and instead ended up with the capture of this setting moon. The moon was bright red in color, just like the color of sun during sunsets and sunrises.

Red moon in Antwerp skies Belgium
The eastern skies were cloudy dashing all my hopes of a good sunrise capture. And it was long after ten in the morning I got a glimpse of sun peeping from clouds much later in day.

The color of the moon surprised me. I have seen yellow moons and read many poems inspired by yellow moons… but a red moon!

Why Moon is Red Antwerp Skies

I looked up on why the moon is red in color. It is amazing! There is quite a lot of science behind this phenomenon.

As you look up the sky at moon, the atmosphere partially blocks your view. The particles in the atmosphere have the property to scatter certain wavelengths of light. They permit other wavelengths to get through directly. When Moon is low in sky, just rising or setting, its light goes through larger atmospheric range than when it is directly up. Light on the blue end of the spectrum is scattered away, while the red light isn’t scattered. This makes Moon looks more red.

It is called Rayleigh’s Scattering of light through atmosphere. The same explanation as offered for why sunsets appear red. Also read my post why the sky is blue in color?

This picture of red moon is taken from my hotel room which is facing the Antwerp port. Date: 6th April 2012.

Red moon in Antwerp skies

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