Can anyone in the uk see the full moon ?

[celtic123]

There looks like a full moon. But the top right section has a slither missing. Seems impossible if you think about where the sun is .

[Hawk]

The "I'm High" thread is down just a few threads.

[OngBonga]

Looks perfectly round to me. You sure it's not a cloud?

[kiwiMark]

The matte black blade of a bitter ex-lover's knife, perchance?

[WillburForce]

Looks normal to me!

[OngBonga]

The whole moon has disappeared now... oh wait, I have my curtains closed... yup, it's still there.

[BennyLaRue]

It's a double rainbow! WOWWWWW!

[bigred]

Silly brits, it's day time...

[Sup3rM4N]

This thread made me look out the window...all i saw was a tree. I want that 5 seconds of my life back.

[celtic123]

Unless you have an AHK script you lost more than 5.

Turns out, my center of my lens on my large refracting telescope sags due to gravity, distorting the images it produces.

[a500lbgorilla]

Turns out, my center of my lens on my large refracting telescope sags due to gravity, distorting the images it produces.

What does this mean?

I've always had a hard time understanding how the sun-moon-earth align to cause a crescent moon. It's just one of those things where it makes sense after you have a good sense of it, but that takes work.

[supa]

One side of the moon is always illuminated by the sun. When the earth is between the moon and sun we see the illuminated side, full moon. When the moon is between the sun and earth we see the dark side, new moon. When the moon is 90 on either side we half of the dark side and half of the illuminated side, quarter moon.

The exception is when the earth is directly between the sun and moon, essentially blocking the suns line of site of the moon which would be a lunar eclipse.

[a500lbgorilla]

One side of the moon is always illuminated by the sun. When the earth is between the moon and sun we see the illuminated side, full moon. When the moon is between the sun and earth we see the dark side, new moon. When the moon is 90 on either side we half of the dark side and half of the illuminated side, quarter moon.

The exception is when the earth is directly between the sun and moon, essentially blocking the suns line of site of the moon which would be a lunar eclipse.

This is not the difficulty that I had :P

The moon is in tidal lock with the earth. The moon has so little rotational energy that the force of gravity of the earth on the close side of the moon overpowers the spin of the moon that the closest part of the moon to the earth is basically constant. That's why there is a dark side of the moon. You're using it wrong if you say "we see the dark side" - it's dark because it's always on the other side of the moon to us. edit: nevermind, i think my dark side of the moon and your dark side of the moon are just different.

Mine is the difficulty of imaging you as an observe, on the surface of the earth, seeing the moon reflecting the light that isn't blocked by the earth as a crescent. It's hard for me to put myself in perspective of the sun and moon. I fully understand that it happens, just that it's difficult to intuitively and apparently put myself in the scheme of things.

[supa]

This is not the difficulty that I had :P

The moon is in tidal lock with the earth. The moon has so little rotational energy that the force of gravity of the earth on the close side of the moon overpowers the spin of the moon that the closest part of the moon to the earth is basically constant. That's why there is a dark side of the moon. You're using it wrong if you say "we see the dark side" - it's dark because it's always on the other side of the moon to us.

Mine is the difficulty of imaging you as an observe, on the surface of the earth, seeing the moon reflecting the light that isn't blocked by the earth as a crescent. It's hard for me to put myself in perspective of the sun and moon. I fully understand that it happens, just that it's difficult to intuitively and apparently put myself in the scheme of things.

The bold is where you're mistaken. The earth doesn't block the light. As I said before that would be an eclipse. When we have a new moon, or no moon, we are in fact looking at the dark side of the moon. We don't actually see it because it's dark ldo. Hold an orange in front of a light. The orange is the moon, the light is the sun and you are the earth. You are looking at the dark side of the orange.

Now hold the orange 90 degrees in relation to the light and your head, now try 45 degrees and then 15. The light reflects off the orange from the same direction but the actual light we perceive becomes less (and more crescent shaped as you decrease the degrees back toward the light.

[a500lbgorilla]

The earth isn't in the way here creating that dark splotch?

[supa]

No

[supa]

Try the orange thing.

[a500lbgorilla]

wow, you learn something new every day. ty much

edit, that does make more sense. That half the moon is still lit in that pic. I just always thought that since it was dark out, the sun was "underneath" you.

[supa]

No problem. I like to feel smart sometimes too. Found this which illustrates it pretty well.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[a500lbgorilla]

I'm glad I finally got this sorted out.

[boost]

I started to seriously panic, because I more or less know how the moon cycles work, and I think of you (rilla) as a pretty smart and knowledgeable guy. So I started to think I had no clue this whole time and that there was something way more complicated going on than the understanding I had.

Aren't you a rocket scientist or something?

[a500lbgorilla]

Hey, everyone's got plenty of dumb in them. I've never had a problem sharing mine. It's pretty easy to misinterpret reality, after all.

It’s also not a problem that comes up much, in fact, the last time it came up was years ago and I remember being told I was really dumb for a smart person back then too. I just shrugged it off and said, “it still doesn’t make sense to me.”

And yeah, I may have studied some stuff about some rockets and orbital mechanics but no one ever seemed to care how the light from the sun was bouncing around according to an observer on his porch at 11 PM.

Heck, predating this mistake, I didn't get how the moon reflected light from the sun because rocks didn't really seem like good mirrors (this was ages ago), so it's all just a slow march of knocking down one misconception after another, never really having it right.

[boost]

1. Nuke moon to create mirror like glass surfice
2. ???????
3. Profit!

[OngBonga]

I didn't get how the moon reflected light from the sun because rocks didn't really seem like good mirrors

The moon's made of cheese, idiot.

[Galapogos]

Hey, everyone's got plenty of dumb in them. I've never had a problem sharing mine. It's pretty easy to misinterpret reality, after all.

I always thought this was kind of funny. I have a friend who's ridiculously smart, like his summer jobs in between university years was being flown somewhere to work on teams trying to eradicate different cancers. So you talk with him about doctor stuff obviously you can't touch him. But any other stuff and he's just another guy like the rest of us.

It always throws you off though because you just assume smart guys know everything. But if you talk to them about stuff they haven't bothered to learn about yet, they don't have some mystical ability to suddenly conjure up its meaning on the spot.

[Penneywize]

Meh, I've studied economics for the past 5 years and I still can't have an intelligent conversation about it.

[celtic123]

5 years. Fascinating . What Branch of economics ?