AAO image reference MISC 4. « Previous || Next » Image and text
© 1977-2002, Australian Astronomical Observatory, Photograph by
David Malin. It is unusual nowadays to find night-time location
free of artificial light, so it is not surprising that we fail
to notice that scenes viewed by moonlight are almost colourless.
The human eye is insensitive to colour when light levels are
low. By the light of the full moon we can see well enough to
move around in unfamiliar terrain, but we cannot see its colour.
To the eye, the trees, the grass and the sky above appear as
shades of grey by moonlight, but our photograph reveals that the
colours are still there. The most surprising is the blueness of
the moonlit sky, which has never been described as blue
throughout recorded history. It is blue for the same reason it
is by day, because sunlight, reflected by the moon is scattered
by the atoms and molecules of the earth's atmosphere. The
photograph was a 20 minute exposure on colour transparency film,
using a wide angle le