The Sun and the Moon

[chroma]

I was out walking my dog and came upon a wierd question (as i usualy do whilst wating for the dog to drop a chocolate hostage)

The sun emmits white light.
This travels across our solar system and gets refracted off our atmosphere which slightly elongates its wavelength causing it to look yellow.

At the horizon it has to travel through more atmosphere which exagerates the elongation causing it to appear more red during sunrise and sunset.
Or so says my physics teacher several years ago.

The problem is it was at night so there wasnt much in the way of sunlight, there was however a nice crescent moon for the dog to squat down under.

The moon doesnt emit any light, its just a ball of rock that reflects sunlight.
But unlike the sun ive never seen a yellow or red moon (except during a lunar eclipse when things go all "pink floyd.")

My question is why the hell not? i mean its exactly the same light yeah? so why doesnt the atmosphere bend it also?

[RedSpider]

Reflected light from the sun has a much lower surface brightness than the sun itself, because the sun's light has become less intense as it spreads outwards.
The moon cannot and does not reflect the vast amount of wavelengths that the sun does

[forntida]

Nothing contains light it only reflects part of the light spectrum that bounces off it. A good example of moonlights low spectrum is the 'wheelie bins'. They all look the same colour in the moonlight.

If you are in a shut off room or down a mine, wot I have been' when you switch off the light you cannot see anything because there is no light spectrum to bounce of the objects.


What about an electric fire in a dark room I hear you cry. That is the same as switching on a torch it shows the radiation part of the light spectrum.

Wot you lot have already said but I have to type something.

[Krypton]

The suns rays are gods love, and the moon is satans ar5e.
this is true, i believe it was in the bible leviticus 13:4

[forntida]

The suns rays are gods love, and the moon is satans ar5e.
this is true, i believe it was in the bible leviticus 13:4

That is a step too far.

[Krypton]

hey blame the council of nicea, they put it in there. not me mate

[RedSpider]

if the moon was satan's arse, wouldn't it be red with a long pointy tail?

[Krypton]

strangely, no. never forget mr spider that the devil is the lord of misrule and the master of lies. he would not advertise his existence in this way.
remember the devils greatest trick was to convince the world he wasnt real

[RedSpider]

so whats god playing at then? why doesn't he prove he's there by smiting wetherspoons

[forntida]

hey blame the council of nicearse, they put it in there. not me mate

I thought you were involved somehow.

[caveman_nige]

Is there a need to hijack so many threads and post clock all over this forum?

[RedSpider]

thread not hijacked. we all answered the thread with reasonable replies. we just went off course afterwards

[caveman_nige]

of course... sure...

[firemouth]

The moon doesnt emit any light, its just a ball of rock that reflects sunlight.
But unlike the sun ive never seen a yellow or red moon (except during a lunar eclipse when things go all "pink floyd.")

My question is why the hell not? i mean its exactly the same light yeah? so why doesnt the atmosphere bend it also?

I'v seen crimson moon rise, and a full blown "Blue Moon". neither had anything to do with the colour of light coming from the moon. and off topic, i have seen it snow "pink". but its not really off topic. as its the same reason for all the effects.

[forntida]

thread not hijacked. we all answered the thread with reasonable replies. we just went off course afterwards

Feel free to bring it back on topic occassionally.