A LUNAR PHENOMENON.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 27, 31 December 1925, Page 5

A LUNAR PHENOMENON.

BRIGHT GREEN COLOUR, THE CAUSE A MYSTERY. Ib seems impossible (says the Auckland Herald) to obtain any clear explanation .of the moon’s bright green appearance which was noted by observers at about a-quarter past seven on Monday evening, when the moon was in the eastern sky. That the phenomenon occurred is not doubted, but local scientific authorities are at a loss to account for it. The theory of one expert observer was that the blue atmospheric light had blended with the yellow light of the moon, producing green. Another authority who was asked about it took leave to doubt that the atmospheric light really was blue, and said that in default of personal observation he must decline to express any opinion. A third, who also had not observed the phenomenon, said he had been inclined to think that ice-crystals in the air, which had produced a large halo round the moon some hours later, might possibly have caused a green hue to appear temporarily by refraction, but on second thoughts he had concluded that this was impossible, because the effect would have to be produced in the direct line of vision between the observer and the moon, and not at an angle with it, as when a halo was seen. The intervention of fog or smoke, by scattering the blue, or blue and green, rays of light, often caused the moon to appear golden or red. but he could not understand how such a process could cause the light to appear green.