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NASA uses "dark side" (meaning far side, not night side) when facing the public [0]: > A series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the M

by wumms 9mo ago

NASA uses "dark side" (meaning far side, not night side) when facing the public [0]: > A series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the Moon that is not visible from Earth. > The far side of the Moon was first observed in 1959 [0] https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/the-dark-side-and-the-bright-side-86353 https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/the-dark-si...

KineticLensman 9mo ago
> the fully illuminated “dark side” Personally, I don't find the phrase 'fully illuminated “dark side”' to be a convincing alternative to the physically more accurate term 'far side'. Of course NASA has only just emerged from the Earth's dark side as I write this (UK here, mid-morning), so I'm not expecting an immediate response from them. And yes, I do know that 'side' is itself not entirely accurate because of libration [0] but that's a different hill to die on. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration#Lunar_libration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration#Lunar_libration
- wumms 9mo ago
  Agreed. The far side is the darker side, though, at lunar night. Poetic proof: "The Earth shine might illuminate the light side of the Moon a little during the long night" (from Jules Verne, All Around the Moon https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16457/pg16457-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16457/pg16457-images.ht...)
  - KineticLensman 9mo ago
    I do like poetry, but if we are looking at a crescent moon, in our night, it means that the bulk of farside is facing toward the sun, and will therefore be brighter than nearside
    - wumms 9mo ago
      This describes lunar day on the far side of the moon, right? Excuse my ambiguity; I was comparing lunar nights only (inspired by the Jules Verne quote): The far side is darker during lunar night (lit by starshine only; Full Moon on Earth) than the near side during lunar night (New Moon on Earth), because it receives both star- and max. Earthshine. I'm not sure about Crescent Moon though: that only narrows the brightness gap slightly, right? Or I’ll have to ask if there’s an astronomer on board our flight.
rbanffy 9mo ago
> NASA uses "dark side" (meaning far side, not night side) when facing the public [0]: That's not helpful, at all.

by wumms 9mo ago

KineticLensman 9mo ago

> the fully illuminated “dark side” Personally, I don't find the phrase 'fully illuminated “dark side”' to be a convincing alternative to the physically more accurate term 'far side'. Of course NASA has only just emerged from the Earth's dark side as I write this (UK here, mid-morning), so I'm not expecting an immediate response from them. And yes, I do know that 'side' is itself not entirely accurate because of libration [0] but that's a different hill to die on. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration#Lunar_libration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration#Lunar_libration

wumms 9mo ago
Agreed. The far side is the darker side, though, at lunar night. Poetic proof: "The Earth shine might illuminate the light side of the Moon a little during the long night" (from Jules Verne, All Around the Moon https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16457/pg16457-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16457/pg16457-images.ht...)
- KineticLensman 9mo ago
  I do like poetry, but if we are looking at a crescent moon, in our night, it means that the bulk of farside is facing toward the sun, and will therefore be brighter than nearside
  - wumms 9mo ago
    This describes lunar day on the far side of the moon, right? Excuse my ambiguity; I was comparing lunar nights only (inspired by the Jules Verne quote): The far side is darker during lunar night (lit by starshine only; Full Moon on Earth) than the near side during lunar night (New Moon on Earth), because it receives both star- and max. Earthshine. I'm not sure about Crescent Moon though: that only narrows the brightness gap slightly, right? Or I’ll have to ask if there’s an astronomer on board our flight.

rbanffy 9mo ago

> NASA uses "dark side" (meaning far side, not night side) when facing the public [0]: That's not helpful, at all.