Editing Moon (section)

===Albedo and color===
[[File:Two Lunar Phases.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|The changing apparent color of the Moon, filtered by Earth's atmosphere]]
The Moon has an exceptionally low [[albedo]], giving it a [[diffuse reflection|reflectance]] that is slightly brighter than that of worn [[Asphalt concrete|asphalt]]. Despite this, it is the [[List of brightest natural objects in the sky|brightest object in the sky]] after the [[Sun]].<ref name="worldbook" />{{efn|name=brightness}} This is due partly to the brightness enhancement of the [[opposition surge]]; the Moon at quarter phase is only one-tenth as bright, rather than half as bright, as at [[full moon]].<ref name="Moon" /> Additionally, [[color constancy]] in the [[visual system]] recalibrates the relations between the colors of an object and its surroundings, and because the surrounding sky is comparatively dark, the sunlit Moon is perceived as a bright object. The edges of the full moon seem as bright as the center, without [[limb darkening]], because of the [[Lambert's cosine law#Lambertian scatterers and radiators|reflective properties]] of [[lunar soil]], which [[retroreflector|retroreflects]] light more towards the Sun than in other directions. The Moon's color depends on the light the Moon reflects, which in turn depends on the Moon's surface and its features, having for example large darker regions. In general, the lunar surface reflects a brown-tinged gray light.<ref name="Science Mission Directorate 2020">{{cite web |date=November 11, 2020 |title=Colors of the Moon |url=https://science.nasa.gov/colors-moon |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409212600/https://science.nasa.gov/colors-moon |archive-date=April 9, 2022 |access-date=April 9, 2022 |website=Science Mission Directorate}}</ref>

At times, the Moon can appear red or blue.
It may appear red during a [[lunar eclipse]], because of the red spectrum of the Sun's light being [[refracted]] onto the Moon by Earth's atmosphere. Because of this red color, lunar eclipses are also sometimes called [[Blood Moon (eclipse)|blood moons]]. The Moon can also seem red when it appears at low angles and through a thick atmosphere.

The Moon may appear blue depending on the presence of certain particles in the air,<ref name="Science Mission Directorate 2020" /> such as volcanic particles,<ref>{{cite web |last=Gibbs |first=Philip |date=May 1997 |title=Why is the sky blue? |url=http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/BlueSky/blue_sky.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102085211/http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/BlueSky/blue_sky.html |archive-date=November 2, 2015 |access-date=November 4, 2015 |website=math.ucr.edu |quote=... may cause the moon to have a blue tinge since the red light has been scattered out.}}</ref> in which case it can be called a [[Blue moon#Whole blue moon|blue moon]].

Because the words "red moon" and "blue moon" can also be used to refer to specific [[full moon]]s of the year, they do not always refer to the presence of red or blue [[moonlight]].