I have seen the full moon rising after the sun has set and noticed that often times it is large and orange. Several years ago when I was camping at Navajo National Monument, I saw the waxing moon, barely more than a sliver, become large and orange as it set about an hour after sunset. Then yesterday just before midnight, I saw the half moon slip below the horizon. It also was large and orange.

I never realized before that every time the moon sets after the sun has gone down that it not only becomes larger, but also more orange the closer it gets to the horizon.

Some times there are things that you think are always associated with one phenomenon, such as sunset turning the moon orange, when they are really associated with something else. The moon is always orange when it goes down after sunset. It does not need to be associated with sunset. It is associated with being dark.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 14th, 2005 at 3:14 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.