everything under the sun is in tune

[jazzfish]

And here I expected it to be clouded over tonight. But I wandered out anyway just to see . . . and it's clear as anything out there. Just a couple of stars for ambience, and the moon a thumbnail sliver below a round red shadow.

The red surprises me, I'm used to the darker blue one sees in photos. But it's definitely reddish-brown here, as though the moon's devouring a tasty round brownie.

At what must have been Xmas 1982 or '83, we were in Arkansas (so, my first or second Xmas after Germany, and thus my first or second stateside Xmas that I can recall) during a lunar eclipse. Pop had just gotten a really nice camera and tripod that year, and he stayed up to take photos of the eclipse. I, on the other hand, was sent to bed because six-year-olds simply don't stay up that late. (It was going to be around one in the morning, I think.) I didn't see the photos for another year or so, but they turned out quite nicely. I imagine someone's got them stashed away somewhere. Mom, probably, or maybe Susan.

Four and a half years ago I got to watch the last lunar eclipse as I was coming back to Blacksburg, to start making a mess of a summer. The moon shone brightly enough, even with the shadow, to be seen through the fog over 460. There's probably a metaphor in there, but I was too shadowed myself to see it.

I think there's an eclipse of the earth scheduled during tomorrow's corporate meeting.

Comments

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Huh.. I expect red, and don't think I've ever even seen a photo of anything different.

[jameshroberts.livejournal.com]

The red comes from sunlight being refracted through the Earth's atmosphere. Some eclipses are redder than others; it depends on how much schmutz is in the atmophere.

It was cloudy here. You could still see the Moon through the clouds but it was pretty fuzzy, and hard to spot during totality.

[jazzfish]

You crazy scientists, expecting us to believe anything you say. "The refraction of the atmosphere makes the sky blue!" "The refraction of the atmosphere makes the moon red!" Sheesh. At least you could be consistent in your wacky theories.

[jameshroberts.livejournal.com]

Well, since you asked:

It's actually Rayleigh scattering that causes the daytime sky to look blue. The short wavelengths (blue light) are scattered to a greater degree than long wavelengths (red) as they strike particles in the atmosphere. More scattering occurs when the light passes through more atmosphere. Hence at sunrise and sunset, when the light comes in tangent to the Earth and passes through a greater airmass, your blue light has been scattered away, and everything looks red. The scattered blue light makes the daytime sky look blue.

From the full Moon's perspective, the edges of the Earth are the regions experiencing sunrise or sunset. Hence, it's that same red light that eventually strikes the Moon and reflects back to the night side of the Earth. The refraction through the Earth's atmosphere is what causes the red light to hit the Moon at all, rather than missing it completely.

So our wacky theories ARE consistent. Course you know that, but it gave me an excuse to blab for a bit.

I really like that icon.

[stormking.livejournal.com]

The lunar eclipise was a sliver + red tint for me as well..
later one.. just kinda shadowed..

[plumbob78.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

I saw it on the back side as My friends and I were leaving the pub. It was pretty cool.