The Moon appears orange tonight mainly because it is low on the horizon, causing its light to pass through a thicker layer of Earth's atmosphere. This thicker atmosphere scatters away the shorter blue wavelengths of light and allows the longer red and orange wavelengths to reach our eyes, making the Moon look orange. This is the same reason why the Sun looks orange or red at sunrise and sunset. Additionally, if there is smoke, pollution, or other particles in the air, they can enhance this effect by filtering out more blue light and intensifying the orange color. The Moon itself is actually gray, but it appears in various colors to us due to the atmospheric effects on the light it reflects from the Sun.
If the Moon is orange even when it's not near the horizon, this is likely due to atmospheric particles like smoke or pollution acting as filters. But mostly, the orange Moon occurs because of the atmospheric scattering of light when the Moon is near the horizon. This explains why the Moon can appear orange tonight.
