why the colour of moon changes to orange sometimes??

The reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by theatmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight has to pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the green, blue, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. You only see yellow, orange, or red.

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. Sometimes the moon will look red, orange...even blue.

Thanks & Regards

Saurabh Singh,

askIITians Faculty

B.Tech.

IIT Kanpur