Moonlight is the light that reaches Earth from the Moon, consisting mostly of sunlight, with some starlight and earthlight reflected from those portions of its surface which the Sun's light strikes .

The color of moonlight, particularly near full Moon, appears bluish to the human eye compared to most artificial light sources. This is because of the Purkinje effect - the light is not actually tinted blue, and although moonlight is often referred to as "silvery" it has no inherent silvery quality. Moonlight generally hampers astronomical viewing, so astronomers usually avoid making observations near full Moon. It takes approximately 1.26 seconds for the moonlight to hit the Earths surface . █