Sunday, June 28, 2026 Red Moon and Smoke

    Martin noticed an amazing sunrise yesterday, and then today’s sunset and moon were also dramatic. Summer fire season has started and we’ve got smoke!

Martin got this shot just a few minutes late, at 5:48 AM yesterday, but this gives you a bit of a feel of how it looked. He first noticed the sunrise while getting dressed and the sun was completely red.

This was sunset today, at 7:15 PM, about an hour and a half before actual sunset. 

At 8:56 PM, we even had a full moon turned red from the smoke. You can even see the man in the moon, the features aren’t really obscured, just the color is changed. The sky looking light is an effect from the iPhone 17’s long exposure and extreme low light capability. It was actually very dark.

No fires near to us, hence the interesting effects from having only the very smallest smoke particles, less than 5 microns or so, around us. This map is at https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/usfs/map/#d:24hrs;

Most of the smoke is coming from the big fires on the Colorado - Utah border. The winds haven’t been very strong, so the plumes are quite concentrated, making it very hard to see what level of smoke you’re in. It looks like we’re in either level 3 or level 4. Map is at https://fire.airnow.gov