What's the moon doing out there?

[chadrog]

Is this something unusual? Or have I just never noticed? It looks really cool - a thin crescent, as I've seen countless times before, but the rest has a faint glow to it. Grab a look if your skies are clear.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Is this something unusual? Or have I just never noticed? It looks really cool - a thin crescent, as I've seen countless times before, but the rest has a faint glow to it. Grab a look if your skies are clear.

When you see the thin, bright crescent, and you can also see the rest of the disk faintly lit, it's called "earthshine." The darker part of the disk is being faintly lit by sunlight reflected off of the earth onto the moon --- earth is shining on the moon, thus earthshine. Pretty cool, huh? Sometimes it is referred to more romantically as "the old moon in the arms of the new."

 

[shrox]

When you see the thin, bright crescent, and you can also see the rest of the disk faintly lit, it's called "earthshine." The disk is being lit be light reflected off of the earth --- earth is shining on the moon, thus earthshine. Pretty cool, huh? Sometimes it is referred to more romantically as "the old moon in the arms of the new."

It's also referred to The Empire's greatest achievement.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

You know who knows what the moon is doing? Buzz Aldrin, that's who. And he does not approve.

[video=youtube;bkntr0IVO78]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkntr0IVO78[/video]

 

[Rich Holmes]

Or in other words it's light, emitted by the sun, striking the Earth, being reflected, striking the Moon, being reflected again, and striking the Earth again... or rather, your eyeball. Think of all those photons went through just so you could see that.

(And in principle a few photons make yet another Earth-Moon round trip, or several, before stopping. But not many.)

 

[scsager]

I'm guessing it's still fairly low in the sky - you must have less obstructions to the east than we do.

Might be ice crystals in the air...?

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Or in other words it's light, emitted by the sun, striking the Earth, being reflected, striking the Moon, being reflected again, and striking the Earth again... or rather, your eyeball. Think of all those photons went through just so you could see that.

(And in principle a few photons make yet another Earth-Moon round trip, or several, before stopping. But not many.)

The sun is always bragging about these tricky bank shots.

 

[Rich Holmes]

You know who knows what the moon is doing? Buzz Aldrin, that's who. And he does not approve.

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkntr0IVO78

And Strax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAAc6iDS01U

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I'm guessing it's still fairly low in the sky - you must have less obstructions to the east than we do.

This always happens right before or right after a new moon, when the moon is very low in the sky. Tonight is a day past the new moon, so you would see it very low in the west after sundown.

 

[hornet driver]

As I recall that whole Eartshine thing did'nt work out too well for this fellow in The Outer Limits----

 

[DAllen]

Because of my looney-toon schedule during the summer working from sun up to sun down I seen this phenomena regularly. Usually seen best either right before dawn or right after dusk. Seems to be more clear during the winter. Happens more often than you think...

 

[hornet driver]

I did go out and take a gander--quite spectacular and, being so low on the horizon--quite large. On another related subject---meteor shower tonight!!!!!!!

 

[Scott_mills]

So if someone where to make whiskey on the moon would that be earthshine ?

 

[chadrog]

Thanks for the explanations guys. It occurred to me a little while ago why this is something I've never seen, and it's due to my goofy schedule. I've been working nights for nearly ten years, and am typically in bed when this happens. I've been off the last two weeks around the holidays, and was lucky to catch it.

 

[JStarStar]

I wonder if most of the Nothern Hemisphere being covered in snow may have increased the amount of reflected light off the earth and thus would make earthshine brighter?

 

[Rich Holmes]

I wonder if most of the Nothern Hemisphere being covered in snow may have increased the amount of reflected light off the earth and thus would make earthshine brighter?

From this page https://itg1.meteor.wisc.edu/wxwise/AckermanKnox/chap2/Albedo.html I gather variations of Earth's albedo are due mainly to clouds rather than snow. But this page https://www.climatedata.info/Forcing/Forcing/albedo.html suggests otherwise. So definite maybe? Either way the variation (and so its effect on earthshine) looks to be significant but not huge.

 

[TopRamen]

I too only started noticing that a few Years ago.

 

[Aero B]

Beautiful Moon and Sky tonight.

 

[hpreric]

I saw that too and thought it looked unique. I can't remember the feint glow like that before.