Please check out the moon tonight. I cannot believe what I am seeing.

Hello ATS. It is 4:45AM in Boston. My brother called me a half hour ago and just said " Look At The Moon!"

I see colors on the dark (shadowed) side of the moon. Blues, Reds.... Sometimes it goes away and then comes back with a vengance.

I have never seen anything like this, so if you are reading this, check it out. It is almost morning so I will end this post to publish, and be back later. If you see what I am seeing, please post. Thanks.

That's interesting. I went outside to look and I can't see above the trees surrounding my house. I hope someone can get a pic of it if they see it too.

I'm tempted to get in my truck and see if I can drive out far enough to see it but it is 4:45 am here.

a reply to: charlyv
I'm going to F & S you any way, Just for getting me out side,,,,,,,, it's 01:50 AM here in Phoenix, AZ. and I didn't see anything different, Sorry, I was hoping to, though!

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe
Let's go back in and have a drink

a reply to: charlyv

Please describe the situation with regard to what precise area of the moon was being coloured in this way? Also, are you at a latitude and longitude which would allow you to see a more southerly expansion of the Aurora Borealis than is usual? The only reason I ask is that there have been some serious flares on the Sun, and there was a prediction that the Aurora might be visible much further south than normal. The colours you saw could have been related to that!

a reply to: charlyv
I see colors on the dark (shadowed) side of the moon. Blues, Reds.... Sometimes it goes away and then comes back with a vengance

I did notice that it may have had tinge of blue at the terminator...might be from that solar X-flare that erupted a few days ago

Is it just on the moon? Or everywhere? My guess is it is an aurora from the CME's that were hitting from the recent solar flares.

"I took the picture from Casco, Maine, facing north towards the Presidential Range in New Hampshire," says photographer John Stetson. "Red, purple, green, blue--all the colors were there!"

Link Space Weather

The storm is subsiding now. Nevertheless, high-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras. NOAA forecasters estimate a whopping 90% chance of additional polar geomagetic activity on Sept. 13th as Earth passes through the wake of the double CME. Aurora alerts: text, voice

DOUBLE CME IMPACT SPARKS GEOMAGNETIC STORM: As predicted, a pair of CMEs hit Earth's magnetic field in quick succession on Sept. 11th and 12th. The result was a G3-class geomagnetic storm, the most intense of the year so far. At the peak of the storm on Sept 12-13, bright auroras ringed the Arctic Circle and spilled down over several northern-tier US states. The sky over Maine exploded in a rainbow of colors:

a reply to: Misinformation

That is what I am thinking also. I don't know, it could be a weather anomaly, but the fact that it changes rapidly makes me think it might be some kind of phenomena related to the solar flare everyone is talking about. Good thing is, my brother took photo's and so did I. For some reason, what I have does not show much color, but it is still strange. I cannot seem to get the blue but instead get reds... very wierd.

My brother is sending some of what he has, and I will post whatever we have for all to see. Can the moon possibly have aurora? (no magnetic field), or is something going on that is different? I will get busy and put something up as soon as I get it in the PC.

a reply to: charlyv

It is possible you are seeing the Aurora
Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights Display Possible Tonight and Beyond

a reply to: charlyv





The wife and I were seeing some friends off in front
of our house about 2 hours ago. As we were coming back
in I couldn't help but comment on something going
on with moon. We watched for bit and I wrote it off to
atmospheric distortion. So I'll confirm that much at
least. 2:06 am So. Calif.

Oh yeah and just before that, the wife said she caught a long
shooting star.

It's true. Whatever it was, the moon was shining in a particular way. My wife and daughter noticed and told me to look thru the window and I did.

I was in the middle of a video game battle and few beers on me, so I didn't trust my eyes.

I'm in New Jersey.

7:15pm here and it's clear sky but no moon!?
I think I saw a thread about the US government planning to blow up the moon, hmmm
I'll check for it again in a few hours, unless we all die first of course.

Definitely sounds like an aurora phenomenon. And Boston is far enough to the north. There were even reports of auroras being visible in Arizona! Viz eg THIS POST from yesterday in a thread on the latest X1.6 Solar flare activity. (Photo included.)

We just cannot seem to capture what we saw. I know it is weird. There are some colors here, but the photo's do not do it justice. Here are some of the first:

5 from by brother Jim's camera








2 From My Camera

a reply to: charlyv

I suppose that there is also the chance that there was some sort of air quality issue in the upper atmosphere, perhaps a larger concentration of a certain pollutant or compound than normal, which filtered the light in interesting ways. That often accounts for colour shifts in light which passes through the atmosphere before being seen by observers on the ground.

a reply to: weirdguy
Probably too early for moonrise. As you doubtless know, it's different every day, but it also varies according to where you are. Check out Time and Dates [dot] com's astronomy page HERE and you can input your location and find out moonrise and moonset times.

a reply to: charlyv


You're right. The pics aren't even as good as the
faintness of what I was observing. But ya gotta try huh?


Oh but the last two are much better!

I tell you , these reds and blues that we saw were changing rapidly. They were like florescent versions of red and blue, if you will. Sometimes they would be only in the shadow area, and then off to the side of the moon and swirling back between the top and bottom (poles) and then disappearing, just to come back again brighter. We need to know what this was, as the effect has obviously stopped, since now it is daylight approaching and there is no more effect. Any clues?

We have more pictures to go through, but I doubt that we were able to capture anything like what we witnessed.
I will post the rest, as we go through them. Thanks for your attention, and hope that at least some of you saw some of this.

a reply to: charlyv

Live Telescope & Astronomy

so far, there is nothing on here about it.

Dammit! The moon hasn't risen here yet. Hurry up moonie! I estimate about an hour or two, errrgghh.

ETA: Yep, bout an hour and a half for Brisbane. Thanks for the link JustMike!