photosarah Loc: East Sussex, UK

Hi

Two nights' ago, there was a half moon in the sky over the south of England, plus a few clouds, and I took the attached photo with my new Panasonic FZ200 just to see what the camera would do. When I put it up on my screen, I appear to be able to see the "other half" of the moon and what is presumably the shadow of our earth making the moon look like a "half moon". I certainly could not see the other half of the moon with my eyes: am I really seeing the other half of the moon, or is this just an illusion? I don't know enough about the stars and skies to know.

Half Moon and the Earth?

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

1st notice is that your ISO is too high and the moon reflection is way blown out.

You can certainly have a view of the other (dark) portion of the moon as slight light reflection is always there.

Try it again and focus infinity with maybe f/11 and play with your ISO while maintaining shutter speed of 125th or 200.

Sarge69

photosarah Loc: East Sussex, UK

Thanks Sarge. I'll make a note of the settings for when I am seriously trying to take a photo of the moon: this time, I was just trying out the new FZ200 at various settings to see what came up. It was point-and-shoot stuff, and I didn't really care whether there was detail on the moon or not: I just wanted to see the results when I changed settings. My query wasn't about the quality of the photo, I wanted to know whether you really could see the reflection (dark side) of the moon. How does that work, if the shadow of the earth is on the moon? Is the shadow not "deep" enough to black out the dark side totally?

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

Probably like a dark room. You go in and close the door and in a little while you can make out some features. Could be the same as your photo of the moon.

Sarge69

Bobber Loc: Fredericksburg, Texas

The visible "other half of the moon" is being lighted by the earth rather than shadowed. That's earth shine you see lighting up the moon's shadowed half, shadowed by it self. If the moon can shine on us, then we certainly can shine the moon up.

kaushikuec Loc: Indore, India

It is not the "dark side of the moon" that is in the picture. The gray half circle is just the part that is seen in full brightness during a full moon. On a 'not full moon' day the brightly lit part is lit by the Sun and the faintly lit part is lit by the reflection from earth.

The "dark side of moon" is actually the "far side" and it never faces earth. The "far side" is not even technically "dark", it receives approximately the same amount of light as the near side (the earth facing side) of the moon.

ggttc Loc: TN

here is a pretty understandable explanation

This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Amateur astronomer Geoff Gaherty operates his own Foxmead Observatory in Coldwater, Ontario, Canada.

Fact or fiction? The phases of the moon are caused by the shadow of the Earth falling on the moon.
Fiction! This is probably the most commonly held misconception in all astronomy. Here's how the moon's phases really come about:
The moon is a sphere that travels once around the Earth every 29.5 days. As it does so, it is illuminated from varying angles by the sun. At "new moon," the moon is between the Earth and sun, so that the side of the moon facing towards us receives no direct sunlight, and is lit only by dim sunlight reflected from the Earth. As it moves around the Earth, the side we can see gradually becomes more illuminated by direct sunlight.

So, the moon's phases are not caused by the shadow of the Earth falling on the moon. In fact the shadow of the Earth falls on the moon only twice a year, when there are lunar eclipses.

photosarah Loc: East Sussex, UK

Hi kaushikuek

Thanks for the explanation: I'd no idea! It is really interesting, I think I need to do a little research and learn. Astronomy is - literally! - a closed book to me.

photosarah Loc: East Sussex, UK

Well, how wrong I was, then. Can't think how I got to be so old, and so wrong: I thought you were supposed to get "older & wiser", but I guess it's not automatic!

ggttc Loc: TN

Dont feel bad...I cant remember what I had for breakfast this morning...uh...did I have breakfast this morning???

mlj Loc: Anderson, SC

What Bobber said.

AUminer Loc: Brandon, Ms

Easy way to show yourself what GGTTC said. Get a ball of some sort or even your fist. Go into a room and turn on one light source. Get as far from the light as possible and hold the ball or your fist out at arme length at about the level of your face and sloowly spin in a circle. Do not rotate the ball. You can then see how the light that is hitting the ball is visible to your eye at different poins in a 360 degree turn.

Phreedom Loc: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

- The original question referred to being able to see the dark[end] side of the moon in the photo when he could not actually see it with his own eyes, live. I don't think he meant seeing the "dark side of the moon" which we know is not possible from Earth.
- See the attached diagram for how the Phases are created as the moon rotates around the Earth.

ggttc Loc: TN

tried it..it works...my wife is staring at me in a peculiar way

AUminer Loc: Brandon, Ms

Would make good UTUBE submission..LOL