Gibbous Moonrise
April 26, 2004
Provided and copyright by: Rémi Boucher
Summary authors & editors: Rémi Boucher
The above 4 photos have been sequenced to show the different colors of the rising gibbous Moon. The Moon looks red or orange when it's close to the horizon, because moonlight has to pass through much more atmosphere to get to your eyes than when it's overhead. The blue and violet-blue parts of the light spectrum are scattered by the air molecules and removed from the light that reaches us. By looking closely, you may notice that the definition of the photos is slightly better when the Moon is higher in the sky -- the refraction of light from air molecules is less.
This sequence is from the horizon to an approximate 25° altitude. The pictures were taken between from 22:55 and 00:15 local time from Quebec, Canada on March 10, 2004.
Details : Nikon Coolpix 4500, from 1/16 at f/3.5 to 1/100 at f/4.3, through a 4.5" Newton-reflector with a 25mm eyepiece.
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