Aug 16, 2022

Pink Moon behind the Brighton i360

PINK MOON BEHIND THE BRIGHTON I360:

The Full Moon rises behind the Brighton i360 - a 162 metre high observation tower and the tallest structure in Brighton and Hove. The Moon's reflection can be seen in the ceiling of the glass pod carrying a group of tourists.

[Link to purchase this photo in the Brighton's Top Attractions gallery]

SIZE OF THE MOON:

When I took this photo I was standing a little over 700 metres away from the i360, the reason this is important is because the further away you are from the object you're taking a photo of, the larger the Moon will look in comparison to it (for further info on this please take a look at my blog titled 'Why does the Moon look so Huge in Photos??'!)

NAME OF THE MOON:

I know what you're thinking, why is the Moon called a 'Pink Moon' when it is clearly orange. The name of this Moon actually has nothing to do with its colour, instead it comes from Native Americans who gave April’s Full Moon its name after a pink wildflower that blooms in spring. Similarly, other months throughout the year are named due to things that coincided with or became more prominent in that month, e.g. February - Snow Moon, June - Strawberry Moon and August - Sturgeon Moon.

SO, WHY IS THE MOON ORANGE IN COLOUR?:

The changes in the Moon's colour as it rises are due to the amount of atmosphere the light reflected from the Moon has to travel through - with the atmosphere being 'thicker' closer to the horizon and 'thinner' higher in the sky. Closer to the horizon orange and red light (longer wavelengths) pass through the atmosphere, whilst blue light (short wavelength) is scattered. As the moon rises higher eventually it will appear white as wavelengths are no longer being filtered out.

The composite image below shows how the Moon's colour changes as it rises up from behind the Brighton Palace Pier, with it appearing much redder nearer the horizon before turning more orange, then yellow and eventually it will become the 'white' Moon that we see high in the sky.

Colour of the Moon over the Brighton Palace Pier

[Link to purchase this photo in the Brighton Seafront gallery]

HEIGHT OF THE POD:

When I took the photo the i360 pod was only about 20-30 metres above the ground and slowly making it's way back to the floor. The pod rises to a height of 138 metres, so I was very lucky to catch the conjunction of the Moon and the pod at that lower height otherwise it would have meant its colour was a lot paler and not the vibrant orange you can see in the photo.

Another factor that helped was the sunset coinciding with the Moonrise meaning there was enough light to easily expose for the i360 pod and the Moon. If it were darker it is likely the brightness of the Moon would have been too bright compared with the pod making getting a decent exposure of both very difficult.

And there you have it, the Pink Moon and the Brighton i360 🌕