What does it mean when the moon is kind of a orange color?
The reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the earths’ atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight must pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the blue, green, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. That’s why you only see yellow, orange, or red. The moon can have an orange color at any time of the year. Sometimes the moon appears orange even when it’s directly overhead. This occurs when there’s a lot of dust, smoke, or pollution in the atmosphere. The size of those particles will determine the type of color you will see.
