Why did the moon turned a rust color last Night?

Last night there was a total lunar eclipse that was visible to a large portion to North America. The moon was obscured by the earth's shadow for about 2 hours. The sky was very black except for the red glow that shown where the moon usually shines. It was the unusual red color that caught my attention. Why was it red?
It all has to do with light. During a total lunar eclipse the moon is in the behind the Earth in its shadow. The Earth blocks direct sun light from the reaching the moon. usually we can see the moon because of this sunlight that hits the moons surface reflecting light and its gray color back toward us to see. The moon does not emit light itself, so by taking away this direct sunlight we don't see it would normally appear.
Although the moon doesn't receive any direct sunlight, it still is lit by the indirect light that passes through the Earth's atmosphere. The Atmosphere acts like a filter and removes most of the blue color light leaving the deep red color. (mr eclipse.com)



sources:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/lunar.html
http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/LEprimer.html

Food Coloring: How food companies use color

Have you ever had a green or purple ketchup on your McDonalds fries? The famous condiment company Heinz introduced the new additions of Ketchup in 2000 and 2001 with great reception from kids. "When H.J. Heinz Co. launch- ed the green ketchup in the U.S. ... the company sold more than 10 million bottles of it in seven months." (Marketing Magazine) Kids were eager to try the new hue of the familiar companion to the french fry, but some adults weren't as adventurous.
This is the reason it was specifically marketed toward children who tend to be open to new things.
The company used green and purple food dyes added to its ordinary ketchup recipe to produce the two new colors of ketchup. There are 7 FDA certifiable food colors.(excluding restricted colors) They are:

FD&C Blue No.1 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Blue No.2 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Green No.3 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Red No.3 (Dye),
FD&C Red No.40 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Yellow No.5 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Yellow No.6 (Dye and Lake)
(http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/colorfac.html)

Food coloring is put into many different types of food and drink including some that you wouldn't necessarily think of. For example, Salmon is sometimes dyed to hide color imperfections. Kool-aid and other drink and soda makers use colors that associate with certain flavors. It is purely for aesthetic purposes as the added color doesn't physically add to the actual taste. Companies use the perception of color so that consumers can identify flavors by sight without tasting it. For example yellow is almost synonymous with lemon as far as drinks go. Some have even suggested that the color even contributes to the taste value of foods. ( http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/?s=food&x=40&y=10)


sources:
http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/?s=food&x=40&y=10
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/colorfac.html
http://www.marketingmag.ca/magazine/current/national_news/article.jsp?content=20010813_18695

Colourlovers.com

I stumbled upon this site a few months ago and thought it was amazing. Colour Lovers is an entire website dedicated to color. Members can log in an create their own color palettes and patterns for others to view and rate.
It is a great vehicle for people to pick up inspiration from others or experiment with different combinations without opening up Photoshop or Illustrator. But if you do want to use creations from this site, there's an export option in various file types, Photoshop and Illustrator included. There is also a blog dealing with color and its practical applications in art and other fields as well. Topics range from the meaning of the GLBT rainbow flag to the true color of the Eiffel Tower.

Here is an example of a palette I came up with.
5 Color Print