First time I've ever seen this. I live in a chicago suburb. I was walking down the steps and I looked out the foyer window and I saw the dark red crescent moon (wish I had a friggin camera) in the west.

Was it low on the horizon? It can appear red for the same reason that the setting sun appears red. I wish you had a camera too. Moonsets make very cool pictures.

dust in the air helps make it blood red too since you live in a big city there will be lots of dust and smog in the air and its low on the horizon so you get atmospheric scattering as well. it can also occur during lunar ecclipses but if it was a cresent moon then it wasn't a lunar ecclipse

i guess its because of its angle of elevation. like that of the sun during sunsets and sunrises.

i guess its because of its angle of elevation. like that of the sun during sunsets and sunrises.

 

this is due to the differnt refractive index depending on the wavelength of the light (red light is defracted towards you, everything else away), but with the moon as stated above it's also likely to be polution in the atmosphere :s

Yeah, I saw a blood-red moon once also. One of the coolest things I've seen. But I was in the middle of nowhere, not in a big city. I've always had trouble seeing the moon in big cities, with all those big buildings and stuff...

 

More than just being red, some atmospheric distortion was making it into a mushroom-cloud shape (it was just on the horizon). It looked just like an atomic bomb going off on the horizon.

this is due to the differnt refractive index depending on the wavelength of the light (red light is defracted towards you, everything else away), but with the moon as stated above it's also likely to be polution in the atmosphere :s

 

yes, pollution may be of a factor as to why it behaves like so. but i saw a red colored moon on the horizon when i was in the beach once. i guess i'll still go with the refractive index/ index of refraction. but i'll try searching on possible pollutants dispersed on the air that contributes to this phenomenon.

yes, pollution may be of a factor as to why it behaves like so. but i saw a red colored moon on the horizon when i was in the beach once. i guess i'll still go with the refractive index/ index of refraction. but i'll try searching on possible pollutants dispersed on the air that contributes to this phenomenon.

 

I'd also like to say I also mean natural polutants such as pollon...

Do the same explanations above work for seeing the moon appear orange?

Do the same explanations above work for seeing the moon appear orange?

 

No. Orange means the apocolypse is coming.

No. Orange means the apocolypse is coming.

 

hehehe! nice one!

 

its only the sun that sometimes appears red right?