What does the yellow moon mean. What colors is the moon? Will come true, will not come true

A distant mysterious planet, attracting the eyes of people, makes you think about its unusual properties. For centuries, humanity has been observing various natural factors, then clothe them in signs. And of course it would be impossible to pass by the phenomena, one way or another associated with the moon, promising joyful or sad events. Perhaps that is why she was always honored. Many peoples of the world bowed to her, offered thanks, asked for the essentials.

Mainly superstitions are associated with the new moon and full moon. Although, sometimes you can hear fearful tales about the bloody moon, which brings troubles.

If people got used to the yellow shade of the moon for a long time, then it is perceived in a completely different way in red tones. Signs point to very sad events: to be at war.

One of the biblical books says: "The Apocalypse will come when the sun turns into night and the moon turns into blood," that is, humanity is waiting for the end of the world.


Still, don't be upset when you see a red disc.
in the night sky. From the point of view of science, such a red color is the effect of optical refraction of light (alpha radiation), the essence of which is the shadow of the moon thrown onto the Earth.

Will come true, will not come true

Many signs about the weather, fate or life are associated with the new moon.


Caring mistress of the night

This is how the moon can be called, which controls many earthly processes: the ebb, flow, growth and extinction of all living things. What would happen to earthlings if one day a night companion decided to leave us? The full moon is its maximum approach to the Earth, when the biorhythms of the living organism of our planet change.

Such moments, of course, found echoes in popular superstitions and omens.

  • If the rays of moonlight hit the sleeping person's face, the latter will have nightmares. You should take care of the tranquility of a night's rest in advance by covering the window with a curtain;
  • It is necessary to give up walking on the full moon, especially for children and pregnant women, as it attracts negative energy;
  • The full moon attracts evil spirits, you should not show yourself at this time by the river or in the forest;
  • It is not recommended to go to the full moon for operations or any other extraneous effect on the human body;
  • The full moon lasts for a short period - 3 days, it is best not to start any global business during this phase. Do not appoint a wedding day, do not go on a tourist trip, do not start a serious conversation - it will most likely end in a quarrel out of the blue.

In this video, you can see the rituals performed on the full moon.

In one of last year's issues of the magazine, in the section "Correspondence with readers", a note "Brown Moon" was published. But why does the moon change color so often?

E. Kapustin (Simferopol).

Since ancient times, the moon has been associated with silver. However, the moon has a very pure white color only during the day. This is because the blue light scattered by the sky is added to the yellowish light of the Moon itself. As the blue color of the sky weakens after sunset, it becomes more and more yellow and at some point pure yellow, and then, at the end of twilight, again yellow-white. The rest of the night the Moon retains a light yellowish color, exactly like the daytime Sun. On very clear winter nights, when the full moon is high, its color appears whiter, but near the horizon it becomes as orange and red as the setting sun.

If the Moon is surrounded by small purple-red clouds, its color becomes almost green-yellow, and if the clouds are orange-pink, then the Moon turns to blue-green. Moreover, these contrasting colors appear more clearly for the lunar crescent than for the full moon.

With candles, for example, giving a reddish hue, the color of the moon also appears to be greenish-blue. This contrast is especially striking if the light sources are not too strong, for example, if you simultaneously observe the reflection of the Moon and a gas flame in water. If you first look at the orange flame of the fire for about half an hour, and then at the Moon, then the Moon will acquire a bluish tint.

And indeed: sometimes you can hear the expression "blue moon". However, this is often called the second full moon of the month. Actually, the full moon does not always happen twice in the same month. Let's remember, because the frequency of the change lunar phases about 29.5 days. Therefore, the second full moon in a month can only occur if the first was on the 1st of that month. For example, February can never be a "blue moon month".

Where did this unusual name come from? Hard to say. It is possible that it appeared on one of the two full moon months shortly after 1883. That year, there was a terrible eruption of the Krakatoa volcano - one of the most catastrophic in the entire annalistic history of mankind. A huge amount of volcanic ash and dust was thrown into the Earth's atmosphere. And for three years, the amount of solar energy reaching the surface of our planet was about 10% less than usual. It was at this time that the bluish-green color of the sun and moon was noted.

Or maybe some observer once noticed a rare phenomenon of the so-called green ray near the setting full moon on the second full moon of the month? (See "Science and Life" No. 7, 12, 1980; No. 11, 1989; No. 8, 1993)

When the Moon and Sun are low on the horizon, they appear yellow, orange, and even blood red. This is due to the phenomenon of refraction of light rays in the Earth's atmosphere and the state of the atmosphere itself.

The Mayan tribe called the blood-colored moon the daughter of the ruler of the underworld, but her appearance was perceived as a good sign: on this day, special people were necessarily born, endowed with unprecedented strength and intelligence.

Other beliefs are less optimistic:

  1. The Slavs believed that if the moon is red, you need to wait for frosty nights or showers that will spoil the harvest. Even if today was a hot day, you should wait for frost at night. ("The red moon will spoil the seeds").
  2. African peoples forbade their fellow tribesmen to look at the bloody moon, as they believed that it could bring misfortune not only to a specific person, but to the entire tribe.
  3. In the Middle Ages, such an event was perceived as a signal of the invasion of witches.
  4. According to the Bible, if a red moon appears in the sky at the same time and a solar eclipse occurs, this will be the beginning of the Apocalypse.

Esotericists and sorcerers used this phenomenon to conduct magic rituals... A similar trend continues today.

What does this really mean?

To begin with, the Moon, as an astronomical body, is not a star and does not emit light. Sunlight, which is reflected from its surface, allows us to see it from the Earth.

But, as we know, white is a collection of all the colors of the rainbow, which can be seen only when the rays of light pass through a prism. It is such a "prism" that the Earth's atmosphere becomes for us, passing through which the light reflected by the lunar surface we most often see white.

However, in some cases, the Moon takes on a reddish orange or red color. But why exactly red? Because, passing through a polluted, "opaque" atmosphere, almost all colors are scattered (especially blue and green), and only the red shades of the spectrum reach the Earth.

This becomes possible in cases where:

The moon is near the horizon

In this position, the rays, which are reflected from the Moon, pass many "obstacles" (air, steam, dust) and almost all are scattered (with the exception of red).

This happens every morning and every evening, although because of the clouds and intense sunlight, we do not always see the large rising moon and can not always distinguish its color. At night, the satellite rises above the horizon, and we see it white.

Polluted atmosphere

During a volcanic eruption, a strong forest fire or smog, you can also see the red moon. Even if it hangs directly above the ground, the reflected sunlight will be scattered through the smoke and only the red part of the spectrum will reach the human eye.

Total lunar eclipse

This is the name of the event when the Moon hides in the shadow of the Earth. During an eclipse from space, the sun's rays continue to fall on the lunar surface, but due to its position they will appear red.

During a lunar eclipse, the Earth's satellite usually looks quite pale, and its colors can vary from golden to blood red. Such a phenomenon rarely happens: the next one needs to wait only on April 25, 2032 (but it will be followed by 3 more such eclipses within 1.5 years). It will not be possible to see it from every point of our planet.

Thus, the color of the moon never changes, and how we perceive it depends only on its position above the horizon line and the level of pollution of the earth's atmosphere.

Does the bloody moon somehow affect a person?

Although scientists do not see any mysticism in such a phenomenon, statistics show that when the color of the earth's satellite changes:

  • the number of accidents on the roads is increasing (especially at night),
  • some people become angry and irritable,
  • the condition of mentally ill and unbalanced people worsens.

Indeed, depending on its position, the Earth's magnetic field changes, which we know about due to the existence of ebb and flow on the ocean. And since a person is 80% water, he is also exposed to the invisible forces of space.

Video: why the moon is red and what does it look like?

Very observant people probably noticed that the Moon does not always have the same color, and even its size can sometimes differ. However, not many people know why the Moon changes these parameters. And today we will figure it out.

To begin with, it is worth saying that our satellite, of course, does not change its color and dimensions. The fact that we have the opportunity to observe it in different forms is only an optical illusion.

Why is the moon yellow

Quite often, we have the opportunity to observe the Moon in yellow, and the first question that we will deal with is why the Moon is yellow.

It is important to understand that the original shade of our natural companion is white and gray. As you know, the light emitted by the Moon is just a reflection of the sun's rays from the specific surface of our satellite. Immediately after being reflected on the surface of the Moon, the rays are sent to the Earth.

Here they are met by our atmosphere - the invisible armor of the planet. It is in the atmosphere that the rays are scattered, directed to the surface of the Earth from the Moon. And short waves are known to dissipate faster. These include blue colors. As for the yellow and red shades related to long waves, their scattering process is more complicated, so we have the opportunity to observe the Moon in yellow, and sometimes even red.

The same answer will be for the question of why the Sun is white and the Moon is yellow. However, the color of our natural luminary is really close to white, and after passing through the atmosphere we often see it yellowish.

By the way, with regard to the yellow color of the moon, the most probable possibility of observing a satellite in this range is on wet days, after rain. This is due to the fact that the conditions of high humidity and pressure contribute to the absorption of light waves and the preservation of the yellow tint of the moon.

Why is the moon big and yellow

If we figured out the question of the yellow color of the moon, then we must also tell you something about the change in the size of the natural satellite of our planet.

The fact is that during the movement of the Moon from the zenith to the horizon, the actual distance to our satellite increases by the size of our planet, which is why the satellite may seem much smaller.

As for the visual effect itself, when the moon is large and yellow, it can be observed during high humidity, as well as during the moon's "zenith".

If you have ever had to watch the sunrise or sunset of a night star, then for sure at that moment your attention was attracted by its unusual color and size. Why is the moon red and large when it is near the horizon? If the size can somehow be explained by an optical illusion associated with, what about the bright orange tint? In the old days, when people were not yet so literate to figure out why the moon is red at certain points in time, an unusual color was regarded as a gloomy omen of terrible events. But how do scientists explain this phenomenon in our time?

Metamorphosis of color

Why does the moon seem huge at times?

In some photographs, you can see that the satellite of the Earth, being located just above the horizon, looks incredibly large. Sometimes this phenomenon can be noticed by oneself, and therefore it is not necessary to say that it is artificially overestimated in the pictures. There are several explanations for this fact. Firstly, this optical illusion is associated with an interesting feature of the human eye - irradiation: bright light figures against a dark background always seem to be larger than their real size. Secondly, according to the theory proposed back in the 60s. James Rock and Lloyd Kaufman, our brain for some reason "thinks" that the shape of the heavenly dome is not correct, but a kind of flattened hemisphere. For this reason, objects on the horizon appear larger than those at their zenith. And despite the fact that the eye marks the constant angular size of the moon (about 0.5 degrees), the brain automatically makes a correction for the distance, and we get an enlarged image of the observed object. However, so far, scientists have not decided which of the proposed versions is the most plausible.