finally fulfilled my movie craving of the month by watching Red Riding Hood. I’m not sure if I loved it because it was a fairytale on the big screen or the gorgeous big black wolves that movie magic brought to life or simply the twisted bit that made the time old story a whole lot darker, regardless… all I knew is that I enjoyed it very much.
Now the new twist in the story circles around the legend of the blood moon. The blood moon in this story is not the same as the Hunter’s Moon or Sanguine Moon which is the name of the full moon that occurs in October with a lunar eclipse. In the story the blood moon is the full moon that rises alongside the moment mars becomes perfectly aligned to it, turning it red.
I’m not sure about the blood moon legend, but the part about mars and the moon coming in perfect alignment – well that one is fact not fiction. Often during the lunar eclipse, the moon turns between red and orange.
But here’s another interesting fact, the moon can turn orange at any time during the year. It doesn’t need Mars, all it needs is pollution in the atmosphere.
Yes, the level of pollution we have in the atmosphere actually determines what color we see the moon as. You see the atmosphere acts like a filtered lens. It bends red sunlight into our planet’s shadow and scatters out blue light, which leaves the red and orange light to grace the moon’s surface.
Basically what we’re saying is, when the level of pollution is high – dust floats into the atmosphere and when the moon is closer to the horizon (typically during fall) the moon is more than certain to turn orange! And interesting enough that’s where the Harvest Moon gets its name. Harvest season contributes to a higher concentration of dust getting into the atmosphere, leading to a thicker atmosphere that scatters the blue light leaving only the red and orange.
So back to the legend of the blood moon – it’s bad news with many supernatural things happening. But the fact is not too far from it – orange moon equal high pollution level. So there we have it, another story where fact is not far off from the fiction.
