![]() ![]() Moonlight is essentially sunlight reflected from the Moon's surface. Makes sense. Things aren't so simple when the Moon is out, something you can see for yourself this week as the gibbous Moon waxes to full by Sunday night. On a moonless night away from city lights, the nightscape is painted in shades of gray, charcoal black, and bony whites. Rod cells are seriously sensitive, able to detect a single photon of light, but they lack the ability to see color and detail. At low light levels, a different group of light-sensing cells called rods go to work. Two different types of light-sensing cells line the retina at the rear of the human eye - cones, responsible for color vision, and rods, which are sensitive to low light but color and detail-blind.įor many of us, both moonless and moon-full nights simply aren't bright enough to stimulate the retina's cone cells responsible for detail and color vision. Is that Bigfoot up ahead or the neighbor's garbage can?įor these reasons, it's often used in scary movies where exaggerated contrasts under studio moonlight create an unfamiliar landscape where anything can happen, including romance. We peer into the gloom straining to see what's there, but lacking the usual visual cues, we're liable to fill in the darkness with our imagination. And while it may not grow hair on your face, we can't help but notice the blacker shadows, blurred details, and lack of color in the landscape on a moonlit night. Moonlight's dark, spooky quality contrasts with the clarity of sunlight. The full Moon shines brilliantly in early December giving mood to the night.Ī moonlit stroll is starkly different from a walk in the sunshine. We explore how we perceive the night under a bright Moon. Romantic, mysterious, soothing, and radiant, moonlight has its own special qualities. ![]()
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