<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>My mother-in-law blind-sided me with this. We'd had a day at KSC, seen Magnificent Desolation and the other lunar exhibits and she had noticed that they always refer to the lunar soil as being varying shades of grey. That night she noticed the near-full moon and asked "If it's so grey why does it appear white?". And "When are you going to get a proper job you no good bum?" I started to try and bluster about albedo and absorbtion of wavelengths and stuff but rapidly gave up. So there must be a simple answer to this: If the moon's soil is so grey, how come it shines white? <br /> Posted by kiwigavin</DIV></p><p>The various sections of the moon's surface actually does contain subtle variations of color, which can be enhanced with Photoshop and other imaging software:</p><p>
http://www.rc-astro.com/photo/id1018.html</p><p>Also, tell your mother-in-law that the moon doesn't always appear to "shine white". Depending on it's location in the sky and on atmospheric phenomenon, such as dust at high altitudes, it can appear to be orange, red, or blue......and once, after the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa in 1883, it was reported that the moon took on a distinctly green appearance:</p><p><span style="font-family:'timesnewroman';font-size:16px;-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing:15px;-webkit-border-vertical-spacing:15px" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">Coincident with these atmospheric fluctuations, magnificent sunlight effects, lurid skies, prolonged dawns, and lengthened twilights were observed. The captain whose experience has here been given at some length states that on September 9, 1883, in latitude 140° N., longitude 114° E., the sun rose perfectly green, and so continued for forty-eight hours; <span style="font-weight:bold" class="Apple-style-span">and that the moon and the stars gave a green light as well.</span> He also reports that he noticed peculiar red sunsets in the South Atlantic several weeks before the Java eruption, and that he carried them through to Hong Kong, and from there nearly across to San Francisco. The volcanic cloud that caused these peculiar effects seems to have followed a straight path, for they appeared on the east coast of Africa on the second day, on the Gold Coast on the third, at Trinidad on the sixth, and at Honolulu on the ninth day. It is impossible to say how high the lighter matter was carried; it is certain that months have been required for it to descend. The places situated below the direct path of the cloud were the first to have those ominous displays, which varied in intensity according to their time distance to the westward; for the cloud was at first elevated as a comparatively narrow column. This column gradually spread out north and south, until the inhabitants of all lands obtained a view of the beautiful effects of broken and absorbed sunbeams, and a demonstration of the power of that steam which was imprisoned by the last convulsion of nature. </span></span><span style="font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span"> </span></p><p>
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1884sep/sturdy.htm</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>