which side of the moon is darker?

This question may seem simple or obvious but please read all of it.

Which side of the moon receives more light, the near side or the far
side (sometimes mistakenly called the dark side)?
Two factors must be considered:
1) The direct sunlight is never interupted (during the lunar day) on the
far side but is eclipsed by the earth once or twice a year on the near
side.
2) Earthlight falls onto the nearside in the same way that moonlight
falls onto earth, but earthlight never falls onto the far side.

So in a year the near side gets a few hours less direct sunlight but
gets hundreds of days of earthlight.

So, over the course of a year, and ignoring for the moment the fact that
the earth blocks out some starlight falling onto the moon, which side
actually receives more light?

I'm curious but am too lazy to do all the calculations to figure this
out for myself.

N. Taylor Blanchard

www.ntaylorblanchard.com

"Taylor blanchard" wrote in message
. 97.136...
This question may seem simple or obvious but please read all of it.

Which side of the moon receives more light, the near side or the far
side (sometimes mistakenly called the dark side)?
Two factors must be considered:
1) The direct sunlight is never interupted (during the lunar day) on the
far side but is eclipsed by the earth once or twice a year on the near
side.
2) Earthlight falls onto the nearside in the same way that moonlight
falls onto earth, but earthlight never falls onto the far side.

So in a year the near side gets a few hours less direct sunlight but
gets hundreds of days of earthlight.

So, over the course of a year, and ignoring for the moment the fact that
the earth blocks out some starlight falling onto the moon, which side
actually receives more light?

I'm curious but am too lazy to do all the calculations to figure this
out for myself.

N. Taylor Blanchard

www.ntaylorblanchard.com

As a wild-ass guess, I would say that both sides receive equal amounts of
sunlight. Since the moon orbits the Earth, it spends half of its 30.5 day
cycle in conjunction and the other half in opposition. Since the Moon is
composed of Earthly materials (if you subscribe to the planet/Earth
collision theory), it stands to reason that its entire surface texture and
color is homogenous.

Let the nay-saying begin ....

"Hagar" wrote in
:


"Taylor blanchard" wrote in message
. 97.136...
This question may seem simple or obvious but please read all of it.

Which side of the moon receives more light, the near side or the far
side (sometimes mistakenly called the dark side)?
Two factors must be considered:
1) The direct sunlight is never interupted (during the lunar day) on
the far side but is eclipsed by the earth once or twice a year on the
near side.
2) Earthlight falls onto the nearside in the same way that moonlight
falls onto earth, but earthlight never falls onto the far side.

So in a year the near side gets a few hours less direct sunlight but
gets hundreds of days of earthlight.

So, over the course of a year, and ignoring for the moment the fact
that the earth blocks out some starlight falling onto the moon, which
side actually receives more light?

I'm curious but am too lazy to do all the calculations to figure this
out for myself.

N. Taylor Blanchard

www.ntaylorblanchard.com

As a wild-ass guess, I would say that both sides receive equal amounts
of sunlight. Since the moon orbits the Earth, it spends half of its
30.5 day cycle in conjunction and the other half in opposition. Since
the Moon is composed of Earthly materials (if you subscribe to the
planet/Earth collision theory), it stands to reason that its entire
surface texture and color is homogenous.

Let the nay-saying begin ....




By darker I mean less light total. The far side does not have eclipses
so it gets a few hours more direct sunlight each year. However the near
side gets a slight amount of light reflected off the earth almost all
the time so which side has more light fall on it over the course of a
year?