Quote:
On 2001-11-05 08:27, Donnie B. wrote:
You claim the moon's surface is much brighter than fresh asphalt. Assume for a moment that this were true -- that the moon was a good reflector, and nearly white.
If that were the case, then the surface of the full moon would look nearly as bright as the disc of the sun! A moonlit night would have at least a dark-blue sky, and the moon would be too bright to look at directly. (No, it wouldn't be quite as bright as the sun, because some of the infalling light would reflect away in other directions. My point it that the moon would be far, far brighter than it is.)
But really, that's a side issue.
|
Sure, but in this case, everything is a side issue. The issue is whether or not Apollo 13 was a hoax, but the discussion hinges on "side issues."
Actually, I was startled by your claim that the moon would be as bright as the sun, but now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense. If there were a giant mirror orbiting the earth, reflecting the sun, we would see an image of the sun in that mirror which would be approximately the size of the sun, since the sun is so far away compared to the distance to the mirror. If the mirror was smaller than that, we'd see less of the image of the sun, and have less light, obviously--but since the moon is about the size of the sun in the sky, such a reflective moon would be able to reflect the whole image of the sun. And it would be about as bright as the sun. That's fifteen magnitudes brighter than what it is. So, it doesn't reflect very much light.
Sure is bright in the eyepiece, though.