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One thing I've noticed while looking at the Moon, the "dark" part is lit enough to see that it's an orb and not really being eaten by darkness. This webpage doesn't do that, I guess it's from a different perspective without the earth shining on the Moon.


I guess you alreay know this, but for reference this is caused by earthlight (light diffused and reflected by the earth): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthlight_(astronomy)

Sometimes it's clearly visible, but often I agree that it's hard to tell if you're imagining it or not.


There's a short paragraph on "earthshine" towards the end.


I often wonder if it's just my imagination or is it really like that. I am still not sure.


Think of how when the moon is in the sky at night the ground on Earth is lit up and not fully black. Same with the moon, it’s not totally dark on the night side of the moon if the Earth is in the sky from the moon’s perspective.




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