Does the moon look extremly bright to anyone else?

Your question is a good one and it gets asked a lot at observatory open houses when people are squinting through the eyepiece at the almost painfully bright lunar surface! The answer is that the Moon is actually not very reflective,the Sun is just very bright. The Moon reflects only about 11% of the sunlight that hits it. But the Sun is so bright that even this much reflection looks very bright to us. The rocks on the lunar surface are greyish volcanic rocks, and although there are small glass particles mixed in (which can be shiny), the overall mixture isn't really very reflective.

curious.astro.cornell.edu...

This could be the answer you are looking for, I spend a lot of time on my balcony on the 10th floor and have noticed the same thing recently.

Wow ...We were at the driving watching "Air Bender" and I thought someone had turn on their head lights.It shined so bright on my kids.But it was the MOON!!!

It is always bright as it approaches the full moon stage.

To all the people who were saying "Oh yeah, the full moon is always bright, you guys just never look at it." I went outside, on the ACTUAL full moon to compare. It was LESS bright than the night before. So. there's egg on YOUR faces.

Slow day on the conspiracy front...

reply to post by Solasis


And the atmospheric conditions were exactly the same between last night and the night before? And you looked exactly 24 hours and 29 minutes after the night before so the moon was in the same position in the sky? And you measured the luminous flux both nights and found last night's value to be less?

reply to post by weedwhacker


I tried too. Stewie is convinced that his theory is somehow unique when in fact all hes doing is rewording conventional knowledge to make it sound like a unique theory.

[edit on 7/27/2010 by dbloch7986]

[edit on 7/27/2010 by dbloch7986]

Reply to post by Solasis

How many times does someone have to post a source explaining this before people stop thinking up conspiracies about this? You people really need to let it be...the moon is bright so what? I llooked at it the past couple of nights and althought it took a couple of seconds to focus I was not "blinded" and could easily see the craters. Relax people you live to see another day.


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reply to post by Aquarius1


That's a good point and also true of every heavenly body in our solar system. Our ability to see all planets in the sky comes from the sun. I suppose the change in luminosity of the moon can be explained by the same factors as the planets.

I am still in favor of the idea that a full moon happened on a Saturday for the first time in a long time, which happens to coincide with people actually being up to notice. Couple that with good atmospheric viewing conditions and you have people suddenly thinking the moon is brighter. Wait until there's a new moon on the weekend and suddenly people will realize how dark it is.

I have seen the moon through the Griffith observatory telescope and it is so bright your eyes will water.

Originally posted by Umbra Sideralis
Last night, here in Portugal, i was smoking in the window at 2 AM, and i noticed how more bright and white it was.
I was forced to look away after2 to 5 seconds, because it starts to hurt my eyes also!
In 40 Years of life, it is the first time the Moon hurts my eyes, like the Sun, just to look to it!

Exactly same thing here, except I'm near equator. I think the almanac thingy doesnt apply to me, its just names given to full moon for me. I dont even have solstice for sake!

It is a bright than usual full moon. I have seen brighter moon. What different is this one have glares!. Usual moon is like fluorescent light, this one like bulb light, a bit weird. I cannot makeup "the old man on the moon" anymore/craters.

Oh yeah, the moon always appear white/gray to me, never red/orange or whatever.

On explanation:
Probably because were at peak of sun solar cycle. (I choose this)
The earth atmospheric thinning thingy. (and this)
Somebody explode a nuclear bomb and doesnt inform the world. (they DO have impact on how we see moon, ever see green/pink moon ?)
Its full moon and on almanac schedule (sheesh)

Originally posted by nataylor
reply to post by Solasis

 

And the atmospheric conditions were exactly the same between last night and the night before? And you looked exactly 24 hours and 29 minutes after the night before so the moon was in the same position in the sky? And you measured the luminous flux both nights and found last night's value to be less?

Uh, I think you kind of missed the point of my post. My point is that the appearance was not merely that of the full moon.

As to "yargh stop looking for conspiracies everywhere" person over there, I don't think this is a conspiracy at all. I think it was an interesting phenomenon, and wanted to know what had caused it. People were telling us that it was NOT a phenomenon, but rather simply the full moon. My point in this post was that it clearly was NOT simply the full moon.

Plus, dbloch has sufficiently explained it for me. The people posting links to the "thunder moon" crap aren't explaining anything. THAT IS THE NAME OF THE FULL MOON DURING THE MONTH OF JULY. It does not name a phenomenon.

This is interesting. Take a look here and see how high up the moon is above the Earth's equator (don't know the technical term). Maybe its reflecting more sunlight because less of the Earth is shadowing it right now. I know the moon wobbles in orbit on a north-south pattern (along the Earth's vertical axis). Link

Okay forever let my momentary lapse of reason be enshrined in this post. That was dumb of me. Clearly the Moon is just below the equator because the nothern hemisphere is leaning towards the sun because its summer. Fail.

Its still a cool link though.

[edit on 7/27/2010 by dbloch7986]

[edit on 7/27/2010 by dbloch7986]

No but...

I heard some drugs dilate your eyes, maybe making it appear brighter.

Just playing

But no, not the moon, but some stars seem odd lately.

Originally posted by dbloch7986
This is interesting. Take a look here and see how high up the moon is above the Earth's equator (don't know the technical term). Maybe its reflecting more sunlight because less of the Earth is shadowing it right now. I know the moon wobbles in orbit on a north-south pattern (along the Earth's vertical axis). Link

Okay forever let my momentary lapse of reason be enshrined in this post. That was dumb of me. Clearly the Moon is just below the equator because the nothern hemisphere is leaning towards the sun because its summer. Fail.

The declination of the moon changes over time because the earth is inclined about 26.5 degrees in relation to the its orbit around the sun and the moon's orbit is inclined by 5 degrees relative to the earth's orbit around the sun. This means the moon can go from a declination of 28.5 degrees to -28.5 degrees. In fact, about every 19 years, things line up just right so that this happens over a short 2-week period. This is known as lunar standstill.

Also, the moon is never in the earth's shadow unless a lunar eclipse is happening. And that's relatively rare.

I knew it!

Its the japanese, yep, its the reflection from solar panel there.
Power from space!

Wait....they haven't build it yet.
Conspiracy Sidetrack:
I think North Korea perform another nuclear test, thus changing the atmosphere a bit.

reply to post by nataylor


Thanks! That was a great read. I already understood the general concept but its always great to learn the nomenclature and get a more thorough understanding. Ivwas thinking that maybe the position of the earth and moon was just right that the suns light was able to make a more direct path with less diffusion to the moon causing more light to reflect off. I'm curious now, is that even logical or possible?