An interesting page about lunar albedo can be found here;
http://jeff.medkeff.com/astro/lunar/obs_tech/albedo.htm
the special properties of a dusty surface makes the Moon brighter when seen from certain angles, making the 'tarmac' analogy inaccurate.
But of course many strange effects can be observed on Earth too; grassy surfaces, forests, standing corn, water have different reflection characteristics when observed or illuminated from different angles.

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense- Novella Contest Issue! . OA Flickr set

There is an interesting color account given for the Moon here, though it is cut-off after page one.

There does seem to be a reasonable chance for an unsaturated hue of brown. If it had more saturation, then there would be less subjectivity to it. The Apollo implanted American flag would not look brown due to the great saturation. This flag also helps color calibrate the surface color, too. However, it helps less than one might think, since only red and blue are known. I can show that flag in its normal color along with your choice of either a bluish-gray surface or a pinkish-gray surface, taken by each of the two astronauts sequentially.

I don't know what all this does for our planetary mosaic. Would Mercury be that similar to the Moon, since both have no atmospheric protection from possible Solar color dillution effects?

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Here is something close to what I was hoping y'all would find in publication. Mercury does seem to have a slight brown tinge in it (NASA/JPL image). I wonder, though, if Venus might be more yellow. Notice the blue streak in Saturn's northern clear atmosphere due to Rayleigh Scattering. I doctored Uranus and Neptune to more bland coloration.

The Sun isn't near as impressive as normal, but the evidence is quite strong favoring this view, IMO. I did add a tinge of blue in the center, but that is mostly wishful thinking. Yet, the central zone is 6390K, one would think it should have a little blue in it.

Hopefully, someday, someone will get these right so the future tourists that go up will know what to look for.

Attached Images

Sun Planet Corel Montage smaller.jpg (142.3 KB, 15 views)

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

George, that was a really original idea, to try and get them all together in their possible natural colours.

I like the result. I still can't get used to the Sun being white though..

Thanks, I think I'll go treat myself to an ice cream. [I really was hoping to buy one for someone else.]

Yet, white means it has all the colors in relatively equal proportions, which can be verified from spectral irradiance data (converted to photon flux). Yep, it's white, but it isn't recognized fully as such, due to the poor funding for heliochromologists.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.