<p>The color of moonlight, as perceived by our eyes, is white. It <em>appears</em> to be a brilliant white during night and it may also look slightly orange near the horizon.</p>
<p>As regard to color temperature, the cooler a body is the warmer is the light and the hotter a body is the cooler is the light; which is why Antares or Betelgeuse appear redder and Sirius looks blue. The color temperature of moon is ~4000K to 4500K. This means that the moonlight should look 'yellow and warm'.</p>
<p>The moonlight is a little red as the reflectance of moon increases with increase in wavelength (i.e longer and redder wavelength).</p>
<p>(Source: <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/111533a0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.nature.com/articles/111533a0</a>)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-03T10:09:49.700Z
Can you give references to the colour and colour temperature statements?
planetmaker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-03T10:53:25.830Z
@planetmaker Pictures of the reflectance spectrum and albedo wavelength-dependence can be found in the closely-related question.  https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/26780/why-is-moon-light-not-the-same-color-as-sunlight
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-03T11:39:19.903Z
1) The surface temperature of Antares, Sirius and Betelgeuse can be found in Wikipedia.  This site talks about the star color and surface temperature. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-astronomy/chapter/colors-of-stars/

2) Color temperature of moonlight: https://www.nature.com/articles/111533a0
Anupama Mukherjee
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-03T09:51:47.587Z
2024-11-03T20:27:48.850Z
2024-11-03T20:27:48.850Z
Anupama Mukherjee
<p>What color is the moonlight? And does it's color temperature change along the day/night like the sun?</p>
<p>By &quot;What color is the moonlight&quot; I need the hex code of the color, or it's color tempreture if it constant.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-01T21:22:42.983Z
Closely related https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/26780/why-is-moon-light-not-the-same-color-as-sunlight
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-02T17:16:35.460Z
#FFFFFF is a pretty good value to use.  It's certainly close enough to be realistic.  Naturally there is variation when the moon is low.  However moonlight (and particularly when the moon is low) is normally too dim for colour to be clearly seen in objects illuminated only by moonlight. And yes, you are overthinking this if you are creating an illumination engine for a game.
James K
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-03T02:40:52.143Z
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight#Illumination
Nilay Ghosh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-03T05:30:49.560Z
Perceived color is a rabbit hole. Hex codes are for displays and printers, I don't think they are used by people who do room lighting (correct me if I'm wrong). And of course at low illumination levels are color sense changes a lot. If possible, see if you can find a copy of [Billmeyer and Saltzman's Principles of Color Technology](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119367314) in a library if possible. On the other hand, color temperature would certainly be possible.
uhoh
<the-moon><light>
Moonlight Color
Ahmed Dyaa
# Moonlight Color

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-11-01)

What color is the moonlight? And does it's color temperature change along the day/night like the sun?

By "What color is the moonlight" I need the hex code of the color, or it's color tempreture if it constant.

**Tags:** the-moon, light

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Closely related https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/26780/why-is-moon-light-not-the-same-color-as-sunlight  
> **username_2**: #FFFFFF is a pretty good value to use.  It's certainly close enough to be realistic.  Naturally there is variation when the moon is low.  However moonlight (and particularly when the moon is low) is normally too dim for colour to be clearly seen in objects illuminated only by moonlight. And yes, you are overthinking this if you are creating an illumination engine for a game.  
> **username_3**: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight#Illumination  
> **username_4**: Perceived color is a rabbit hole. Hex codes are for displays and printers, I don't think they are used by people who do room lighting (correct me if I'm wrong). And of course at low illumination levels are color sense changes a lot. If possible, see if you can find a copy of [Billmeyer and Saltzman's Principles of Color Technology](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119367314) in a library if possible. On the other hand, color temperature would certainly be possible.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2024-11-03. Score: 0

The color of moonlight, as perceived by our eyes, is white. It *appears* to be a brilliant white during night and it may also look slightly orange near the horizon.

As regard to color temperature, the cooler a body is the warmer is the light and the hotter a body is the cooler is the light; which is why Antares or Betelgeuse appear redder and Sirius looks blue. The color temperature of moon is ~4000K to 4500K. This means that the moonlight should look 'yellow and warm'.

The moonlight is a little red as the reflectance of moon increases with increase in wavelength (i.e longer and redder wavelength).

(Source: <https://www.nature.com/articles/111533a0>)

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: Can you give references to the colour and colour temperature statements?  
> **username_1**: @username_6 Pictures of the reflectance spectrum and albedo wavelength-dependence can be found in the closely-related question.  https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/26780/why-is-moon-light-not-the-same-color-as-sunlight  
> **username_5**: 1) The surface temperature of Antares, Sirius and Betelgeuse can be found in Wikipedia.  This site talks about the star color and surface temperature. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-astronomy/chapter/colors-of-stars/  2) Color temperature of moonlight: https://www.nature.com/articles/111533a0  

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