Timeline for Why is the surface of the Moon white?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 7, 2015 at 1:04 | comment | added | scm | Thanks Robert. It's a composite photo of several overlapping regions of the moon shot through my telescope. | |
| Aug 5, 2015 at 20:38 | comment | added | Robert Filter | You make your own hi-res images of the moon? That's impressive. | |
| Jul 12, 2015 at 22:34 | history | edited | scm | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Attempting to improve the answer.
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| Jul 12, 2015 at 22:29 | comment | added | scm | Ok. I will witdraw my answer as to why it is perceived as white because I do not have a reference for white adaptation and the perception of bright objects. And I will make it clear what the photographs show in my answer. | |
| Jul 12, 2015 at 21:59 | comment | added | ProfRob | It is not the integrated magnitude that matters is it? Are you claiming that the brighter the object, the less likely we discern its colour? Do you have a reference for this? The other way around is certainly true. | |
| Jul 12, 2015 at 21:29 | comment | added | scm | I also should point out that though this is a physics forum where we are used to objective instrumentation, the human visual system is not a spectrum analyzer. If you are in a dim room at night watching TV, your perception of what is white and what colors are appear normal. Walk outside and look at the window of the room. The room will appear to be bathed in blue light. This is because the white point of the TV is decidedly blue but you adapt to it as white. When you are outside looking in, you are no longer adapted to that white point. | |
| Jul 12, 2015 at 21:06 | comment | added | scm | The apparent magnitude of the brightest star is dim (Sirius at -1.4) compared to the Moon at -12. So the moon is extremely bright compared to those stars. I'm looking for the apparent magnitude of the moon on the horizon, my assumption is that it is not near -12. | |
| Jul 12, 2015 at 20:53 | comment | added | ProfRob | As others point out above you can see bright stars as coloured against the same background. And actually the moon does appear coloured when it is low in the night sky and affected by atmospheric scattering. The answer can only be that the lunar spectrum is close enough to (what we perceive as) white that we are unable to see it as coloured. | |
| Jul 12, 2015 at 20:20 | history | edited | scm | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 290 characters in body
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| Jul 12, 2015 at 13:43 | history | undeleted | scm | ||
| Jul 12, 2015 at 13:42 | history | edited | scm | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 17 characters in body
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| Jul 12, 2015 at 13:32 | history | deleted | scm | via Vote | |
| Jul 12, 2015 at 3:28 | history | answered | scm | CC BY-SA 3.0 |