When asked the color of the night sky, it is tempting to say, “black, of course!” However, that is not really correct. It looks black to us because there is not enough light to stimulate the color-sensitive cones in our eyes, even though there is light in the nighttime sky, and it has color. Away from city lights or other interfering light sources, the night sky,illuminated by moonlight is blue,
similar to the sunlit daytime sky.Moonlight is simply reflected sunlight, which is still scattered by air molecules in the Rayleigh fashion that gives rise to a blue sky. Therefore, with a full moon out, the night sky is blue. We cannot see the blue because moonlight, which is about 10 million times weaker than sunlight, is not bright enough to stimulate our color vision.
similar to the sunlit daytime sky.Moonlight is simply reflected sunlight, which is still scattered by air molecules in the Rayleigh fashion that gives rise to a blue sky. Therefore, with a full moon out, the night sky is blue. We cannot see the blue because moonlight, which is about 10 million times weaker than sunlight, is not bright enough to stimulate our color vision.
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