Tints and Polarisation of Moonlight in Eclipse

Abstract

THE gradation of the coloured tints on the moon's surface during total eclipse was seen here most clearly last Tuesday. At the middle of the eclipse the surface seemed to be obscured by a dusky disc surrounded by a broad bright copper-coloured rim, of uniform width, following the outline of the moon's edge. Just before totality ceased the surface presented the appearance of a series of coloured crescents having the centres of their boundaries on the line joining the point where ordinary light would soon appear to the moon's centre.