I'm Writing Fiction about the Moon: Some Basic Questions!

I'm doing some fiction writing about the moon, and was curious about a
couple of things. Was wondering if anyone could shed light on these
questions!

1) Is the moon iluminated only by light reflected from the Earth? I
tried to imagine that, but can't imagine if the moon rotates the
earth every month, how it doesn't get direct sunlight at some point.
Ie, come between the Earth and Sun and therefore get direct sunlight
on the lunar side opposite the Earth.

2) Is one side of the moon always in darkness and is that side
unchanging? In other words, if you were to plant a flag on the dark
side of the moon, would that flag always be in darkness during the
moon's rotation around the earth, and its own axis rotation?

3) Is it possible to be on one side of the moon that can't see the
Earth, but still gets some kind of light either reflected from Earth
or the sun? I'm working on a story that involves a character not
being able to see our planet from his vantage point, but does that
mean the character will be in pure darkness?

Any answers very much appreciated! THank you....


Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com

On 7 Jan 2004 20:51:36 -0600, in a place far, far away,
lid (k2director) made the phosphor on
my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

I'm doing some fiction writing about the moon, and was curious about a
couple of things. Was wondering if anyone could shed light on these
questions!

1) Is the moon iluminated only by light reflected from the Earth? I
tried to imagine that, but can't imagine if the moon rotates the
earth every month, how it doesn't get direct sunlight at some point.
Ie, come between the Earth and Sun and therefore get direct sunlight
on the lunar side opposite the Earth.

2) Is one side of the moon always in darkness and is that side
unchanging? In other words, if you were to plant a flag on the dark
side of the moon, would that flag always be in darkness during the
moon's rotation around the earth, and its own axis rotation?

3) Is it possible to be on one side of the moon that can't see the
Earth, but still gets some kind of light either reflected from Earth
or the sun? I'm working on a story that involves a character not
being able to see our planet from his vantage point, but does that
mean the character will be in pure darkness?

Any answers very much appreciated! THank you....

Good gosh, you have so much to learn. Your book will be a disaster in
terms of scientific believability unless you go off and get a modicum
of education first. Draw yourself some pictures. If you're really a
novelist, it can't be *that* hard to imagine. Any simple question
like that we answer here will only get you into much deeper trouble
(i.e., a little knowledge is a dangerous thing).

k2director wrote:

I'm doing some fiction writing about the moon, and was curious about a
couple of things. Was wondering if anyone could shed light on these
questions!

1) Is the moon iluminated only by light reflected from the Earth? I
tried to imagine that, but can't imagine if the moon rotates the
earth every month, how it doesn't get direct sunlight at some point.
Ie, come between the Earth and Sun and therefore get direct sunlight
on the lunar side opposite the Earth.

No, the Moon gets sun on all sides as it goes in it's orbit around
the Earth. The light reflected from Earth is close to negligible. When
you see a nice bright full moon, that's the Sun shining on it. The days
on sunrise to the next) are 28 Earth days long.

2) Is one side of the moon always in darkness and is that side
unchanging? In other words, if you were to plant a flag on the dark
side of the moon, would that flag always be in darkness during the
moon's rotation around the earth, and its own axis rotation?

No. The Moon sees the Sun just as much as the Earth does. One side
of the moon always faces the Earth, but the Sun shines on all parts of
the moon. When there's a "New Moon", the far side of the moon is fully
illuminated by the Sun, and the near side is obviously in the dark.



3) Is it possible to be on one side of the moon that can't see the
Earth, but still gets some kind of light either reflected from Earth
or the sun? I'm working on a story that involves a character not
being able to see our planet from his vantage point, but does that
mean the character will be in pure darkness?


No. See above.

There are a few spots on the moon that never get direct sunlight,
near the north and south poles, at the bottom of some deep craters.
These areas are very small, and you probably can't see the earth from a
few spots for the same reason.

All of this is extremely fundamental astronomy - grade school stuff.
Before going off and writing a story that may prove embarassing, you
need to go do some basic research.

Brett

Why dont you base your book an a fictional moon which has a fictional planet
it orbits on a fictional orbit in a fictional star system? This will make
you seem like less of a dumbass... like Rand Simberg and Brett Buck
mentioned, do some drawings, its not hard, and work out a possible way that
this moon of yours can obey your 'rules' in the book... Its dangerous doing
a fiction book on a non-fiction stage... you still need to be believable,
so, like I said, make it ALL fictional...

Best of luck...

Oh and if you want to be precise about our moon, its lunar month is 27.3
days... but who's counting?

Niko


"k2director" wrote in message
...
I'm doing some fiction writing about the moon, and was curious about a
couple of things. Was wondering if anyone could shed light on these
questions!

1) Is the moon iluminated only by light reflected from the Earth? I
tried to imagine that, but can't imagine if the moon rotates the
earth every month, how it doesn't get direct sunlight at some point.
Ie, come between the Earth and Sun and therefore get direct sunlight
on the lunar side opposite the Earth.

2) Is one side of the moon always in darkness and is that side
unchanging? In other words, if you were to plant a flag on the dark
side of the moon, would that flag always be in darkness during the
moon's rotation around the earth, and its own axis rotation?

3) Is it possible to be on one side of the moon that can't see the
Earth, but still gets some kind of light either reflected from Earth
or the sun? I'm working on a story that involves a character not
being able to see our planet from his vantage point, but does that
mean the character will be in pure darkness?

Any answers very much appreciated! THank you....


Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
On 7 Jan 2004 20:51:36 -0600, in a place far, far away,
lid (k2director) made the phosphor on
my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

I'm doing some fiction writing about the moon, and was curious about a
couple of things. Was wondering if anyone could shed light on these
questions!

1) Is the moon iluminated only by light reflected from the Earth? I
tried to imagine that, but can't imagine if the moon rotates the
earth every month, how it doesn't get direct sunlight at some point.
Ie, come between the Earth and Sun and therefore get direct sunlight
on the lunar side opposite the Earth.

2) Is one side of the moon always in darkness and is that side
unchanging? In other words, if you were to plant a flag on the dark
side of the moon, would that flag always be in darkness during the
moon's rotation around the earth, and its own axis rotation?

3) Is it possible to be on one side of the moon that can't see the
Earth, but still gets some kind of light either reflected from Earth
or the sun? I'm working on a story that involves a character not
being able to see our planet from his vantage point, but does that
mean the character will be in pure darkness?

Any answers very much appreciated! THank you....

Good gosh, you have so much to learn. Your book will be a disaster in
terms of scientific believability unless you go off and get a modicum
of education first. Draw yourself some pictures. If you're really a
novelist, it can't be *that* hard to imagine. Any simple question
like that we answer here will only get you into much deeper trouble
(i.e., a little knowledge is a dangerous thing).

Actually better than pictures...

Get a flashlight. That's your Sun.

Get your son(if you have one) and have him stand about 5 feet from the Sun.
Your son is Earth.

Now you walk around your son (not the Sun) and keep facing your son the
entire time.

Note where the light from the Sun falls.

(Simply put as Pink Floyd put it, "There is no dark side of the moon,
really".)

Dark really meant "unknown" (just as the Dark Continent meant unknown, not
that they thought it was hard to see there.)

On 7 Jan 2004 20:51:36 -0600, lid
(k2director) wrote:

I'm doing some fiction writing about the moon, and was curious about a
couple of things. Was wondering if anyone could shed light on these
questions!

1) Is the moon iluminated only by light reflected from the Earth? I
tried to imagine that, but can't imagine if the moon rotates the
earth every month, how it doesn't get direct sunlight at some point.
Ie, come between the Earth and Sun and therefore get direct sunlight
on the lunar side opposite the Earth.

Most of the illumination on the Moon comes from the Sun just like on
earth. Moonlight is reflected sunlight

2) Is one side of the moon always in darkness and is that side
unchanging? In other words, if you were to plant a flag on the dark
side of the moon, would that flag always be in darkness during the
moon's rotation around the earth, and its own axis rotation?

No, the moon rotates on it axis every 28 days. There is no such thing
as the "Dark Side of the Moon". The moon experiences 14 days of "day"
and 14 days of "night". There is however the "Far side of the Moon",
since the moon is tidally locked (the time of its rotation around its
axis matches the time of its orbit around the Earth), one side of the
moon is not visible from the Earth. When the side facing us
experiences "noon" it is seen as a Full Moon, when it experiences
"midnight" it is seen as a New Moon


3) Is it possible to be on one side of the moon that can't see the
Earth, but still gets some kind of light either reflected from Earth
or the sun? I'm working on a story that involves a character not
being able to see our planet from his vantage point, but does that
mean the character will be in pure darkness?

Yes, someone living on the far side of the moon would never see the
Earth, but would experience 14 day long "days" and 14 day long
"nights"

There are however some craters near the poles which are kept in
perpetual darkness (and potentially could contain water ice). There
are also some mountains on the poles which are kept in perpetual
light.

Kelly McDonald

Any answers very much appreciated! THank you....


Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com

Niko Holm wrote:
Why dont you base your book an a fictional moon which has a fictional planet
it orbits on a fictional orbit in a fictional star system? This will make
you seem like less of a dumbass... like Rand Simberg and Brett Buck
mentioned, do some drawings, its not hard, and work out a possible way that
this moon of yours can obey your 'rules' in the book... Its dangerous doing
a fiction book on a non-fiction stage... you still need to be believable,
so, like I said, make it ALL fictional...

uhh... I don't think such a moon can exist at all - well, not such a moon
which one side always faced the planet, anyways.


Best of luck...

Oh and if you want to be precise about our moon, its lunar month is 27.3
days... but who's counting?

Niko


--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

k2director wrote:

I'm doing some fiction writing about the moon, and was curious about a
couple of things. Was wondering if anyone could shed light on these
questions!

1) Is the moon iluminated only by light reflected from the Earth? I
tried to imagine that, but can't imagine if the moon rotates the
earth every month, how it doesn't get direct sunlight at some point.
Ie, come between the Earth and Sun and therefore get direct sunlight
on the lunar side opposite the Earth.

Half of the Moon is illuminated by the sun at all times, except during
lunar eclipses when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow.

2) Is one side of the moon always in darkness and is that side
unchanging? In other words, if you were to plant a flag on the dark
side of the moon, would that flag always be in darkness during the
moon's rotation around the earth, and its own axis rotation?

Every part of the Moon has a day/night cycle that is approx. a month
long, since that is how long it takes for the Moon to rotate on it's
axis. (There are some craters near the Moon's poles that never receive
direct sunlight in their interiors, though some sunlight will be
reflected from the rims at least occasionally.)

3) Is it possible to be on one side of the moon that can't see the
Earth, but still gets some kind of light either reflected from Earth
or the sun? I'm working on a story that involves a character not
being able to see our planet from his vantage point, but does that
mean the character will be in pure darkness?

Any point on the lunar far side (that is not too close to the poles)
will be in sunlight half of the time.

Any answers very much appreciated! THank you....

You need more information than you can get off of a newsgroup. One of
the best books about space technology and exploration for general
audiences is still Arthur C. Clarke's "The Promise of Space" (published
in 1969 as I recall). There are some used copies available from Amazon.

Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com

Sander Vesik ) wrote:
: Niko Holm wrote:
: Why dont you base your book an a fictional moon which has a fictional planet
: it orbits on a fictional orbit in a fictional star system? This will make
: you seem like less of a dumbass... like Rand Simberg and Brett Buck
: mentioned, do some drawings, its not hard, and work out a possible way that
: this moon of yours can obey your 'rules' in the book... Its dangerous doing
: a fiction book on a non-fiction stage... you still need to be believable,
: so, like I said, make it ALL fictional...

: uhh... I don't think such a moon can exist at all - well, not such a moon
: which one side always faced the planet, anyways.

Actually our moon is exactly like that WRT the earth. Only one side of our
moon faces the earth. It is in what is called a synchronous rotation. The
earth's gravational force is so strong in comparison to the moon's ability
to rotate that its period of rotation is equal to its orbital period.
Synchronous rotation is not at all rare.

Eric

:
: Best of luck...
:
: Oh and if you want to be precise about our moon, its lunar month is 27.3
: days... but who's counting?
:
: Niko
:

: --
: Sander

: +++ Out of cheese error +++

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 21:08:14 +0000 (UTC), in a place far, far away,
(Eric Chomko) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

: uhh... I don't think such a moon can exist at all - well, not such a moon
: which one side always faced the planet, anyways.

Actually our moon is exactly like that WRT the earth. Only one side of our
moon faces the earth. It is in what is called a synchronous rotation. The
earth's gravational force is so strong in comparison to the moon's ability
to rotate that its period of rotation is equal to its orbital period.
Synchronous rotation is not at all rare.

It has nothing to do with the relative strength of earth's gravity.
The moon is in a tidal lock, which is just a different way of saying
that it's in a gravity-gradient mode, because it's not perfectly
spherical. The heavier part is always facing toward, or away from,
the earth because any deviation from that position causes a restoring
torque.