This night featured a combination of usual and unusual glows. Perhaps the most usual glow was from
the Moon, a potentially familiar object. The full Moon’s nearly vertical descent results from the observer being near Earth’s equator.
As the Moon sets, air and aerosols inEarth’s atmosphere preferentially scatter out blue light, making
the Sun-reflecting satellite appear reddish when near the horizon.
Perhaps the most unusual glow was from the bioluminescent plankton, likely less familiar objects. These microscopic creatures glow blue, it is thought, primarily to surprise and deter predators. In this case, the glow was caused primarily by plankton-containing waves crashing onto the beach.
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