Morning of the blue moon

A whirlwind of work pins me to the wall today, so I’ll have to postpone writing about my favorite molten rocks – the tektites – until tomorrow. Did you see the moon this morning? The last quarter hung high in … Continue reading →

What - a blue moon? Thanks to scattering, you can see a colored moon during the morning hours this week. Photo: Bob King
A whirlwind of work pins me to the wall today, so I’ll have to postpone writing about my favorite molten rocks – the tektites – until tomorrow. Did you see the moon this morning? The last quarter hung high in the southwestern sky around 8 a.m. Very easy to see even with the sun well up in the east. Looking more closely, I couldn’t help but notice that the lunar seas, those big gray spots that are actually vast volcanic plains, were tinted blue like the waters of nearby Lake Superior.
Shorter wavelength blue light is scattered efficiently by air molecules, while the other colors can better penetrate the air and travel directly to your eye. Credit: Pingry School at pingry.org
We all know that white light is composed of all the colors ...