Early tonight was a pretty good time to see Earth-shine on the Moon. If you have dark enough skies, and know what you're looking for, you can see the slight reflection of the light Earth is reflecting...
Um... the upshot of all of this is that you can just see the part of the moon that is not directly illuminated by the sun.
The reason I started this whole post is that when I was getting home from dinner (after a very long day at work, I treated myself to a Roadie at Roadhouse Grill) I noticed that I could see the Earth-shine lit moon. Which reminded me of the very first time I noticed this particular phenomenon.
I was about 4 or 5, and my family happened to be living in Southern California, (Dad was still in the Navy, and stationed out of San Diego) when early one evening I saw what I thought was the planet or other moon that went in front of the Moon to make it's phases.
Hey, I was only a kid!
I remember saying something about what I saw, but don't really remember the reply from my parents, other than there was nothing that came between the Earth and the Moon. It wasn't until I was much older, that I learned what I had really seen.
Funny what you can remember from 25 years earlier, the same day you can't remember where you left the remote...
Posted by GEBIV at May 12, 2005 10:06 PMSo THAT'S what that is. There've been times when the non-sunlit part of the moon was visible in a dingy brown sort of way, but I never really asked myself why.
Posted by: Harvey at May 13, 2005 10:25 AM