Dark Side of the moon

[Guest]

The Earth's albedo was first measured in the 1920s by astronomers who monitored "Earthshine" on the dark side of the moon and made comparisons to the sunlit side of the moon. But methods to measure albedo have varied greatly, as has confidence in the accuracy of the results.

Shouldnt that be better termed"dark portion"? The dark side is not visible from earth.

[Roz]

Quote from the background ramblings on the Pink Floyd album of the same name - There is no dark side of the moon really, as a matter of fact it is all dark.

[shelbyGT]

It's not dark when the sun shines on it.



I'm Captain Obvious!

[Xylob the Destroyer]

and the "dark side" of the moon is in fact very well illuminated during a solar eclipse...

[Conquest10]

And during the new moon phase.

[smearbrick1]

So what we would deem as "dark" is all relative to position?

What a typically human way of describing something. It can't be seen so it must be "dark".

[lumis]

So what we would deem as "dark" is all relative to position?

What a typically human way of describing something. It can't be seen so it must be "dark".

no, not exactly. you cant see air (most of the time), but most humans dont say its dark, they say its clear/invisible/etc..

just because you cant see it doesnt mean its "dark",

[smearbrick1]

So what we would deem as "dark" is all relative to position?

What a typically human way of describing something. It can't be seen so it must be "dark".

no, not exactly. you cant see air (most of the time), but most humans dont say its dark, they say its clear/invisible/etc..

just because you cant see it doesnt mean its "dark",

I can't believe I'm even responding to this...

I was not implying the we, as humans, refer to everything we cannot see as being dark. I was simply stating that because we cannot see the "dark" side of the moon (as opposed to the "lit" side) we simply called it "dark" thereby making the assumption that the "dark" side is, in fact, "dark".

[lumis]

you sould have made yourself a little more "clear". you were really generalizing with the "It can't be seen so it must be "dark"." statement.

[Roz]

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/dark_side.html