Moon's dark side visible tonight?

Well, so says Geoffrey Gaherty from Space.com. Apparently tonight (May 23) and tomorrow night (May 24th) both offer excellent opportunities for folks to view the moon's so called dark side due to an effect called "earthshine".

Skywatchers, take note: Tonight (May 23) and tomorrow night will offer excellent opportunities to observe the so-called "dark side" of the moon.

What is unusual is to see the moon lit directly from the left or right side: That's something you usually see only in textbooks, never in the real sky. The only time direct sidelight is possible is when we view the moon in full daylight, when the sun is at the same altitude as the moon.

Now, i would admit I don't know a lot about "earthshine" but I always thought we were unable to view the dark side of the moon due to the moon's path around the earth. Experts and fellow astronomers, please help out here. Maybe earthshine only affords the opportunity to see a part of the dark side. Not sure.

Earthshine affords opportunity for moon's dark side viewing

Originally posted by Jaellma

Skywatchers, take note: Tonight (May 23) and tomorrow night will offer excellent opportunities to observe the so-called "dark side" of the moon.

Good grief.
This was an article place on space.com?
How standards have fallen.



And might I say once again, huffington post just steals stories from around the web and pastes them onto their own website.
If you want to quote the source, go to the source. Here, the actual article at space.com

reply to post by Jaellma


You can often see the "dark side" of the moon, that's the part beside the cresent or quarter moons...

You can never see the "backside" of the moon from our perspective...

I guess they mean you can see into the moons shadow... But you can do that on a full moon anyway..

Hope I helped..

What is Earthshine

This is a smoky glow on the dark portion of the crescent Moon. It is caused by sunlight that reflects off the Earth onto the Moon's night side. Under the earthshine, the Moon's outline and its dark features can be seen, even though only a thin crescent is bright. We see the Moon because of reflected sunlight (the Moon does not generate its own light). At times, however, the dark part of the Moon glows.

LINK

Great find i never thought this was possible.

(It's the same side though)

One can frequently see the dark, that is night, side of the Moon illuminated by earthshine. This is different than the far side of the Moon, which is largely invisible from the Earth. To make this post more ATS friendly, I would suggest that this in an ideal time to look for Transient Lunar Phenomena on the night side. Any red glow would be more conspicuous, whether due to out-gassing, magma flow or industrious aliens. Alternating between a red and green filter would help highlight any such active area.

When I got home from work I noticed that the Earthshine was in full force, so I took some photos.



But calling that "dark side" is making things even more confusing for some people. Bad move from Space.com.

reply to post by Dustytoad
Ok so now we are dealing with "far side", "dark side" and "back side". I understand far side and dark side but was not aware of the back side.

So, I am assuming the back side is actually the far side. We just need to differentiate this so as to not confuse others.

i also took some shots tonight, It looked like there were more details on the 'dark side'.
Your arcticle could explain why, thanks for that.

reply to post by Jaellma


It's simple, the side of the moon we see when fully illuminated, with the so called "man on the moon", is the side that always faces the Earth, the "near side".

The far side of the moon NEVER faces the Earth, the only way we get so see that is from photos taken from spacecraft.

Both sides can be the "dark side" of the moon depending on which side is facing the sun, so when we have a full moon, the far side is the dark side, during a new moon the near side is the dark side, and I suppose during a lunar eclipse / in the Earths shadow, both sides can be the dark side.

post removed.

reply to post by Jaellma


Think of it as a "full earth" from the Moon's perspective instead of a "full moon" from our perspective. We see the light reflected from the moon (some interesting etymology on the word "moonshine" before it applied to liquor can apply as well), on the moon, the light reflected from the earth would be "earth shine".

Originally posted by Jaellma
reply to post by Dustytoad

 

Ok so now we are dealing with "far side", "dark side" and "back side". I understand far side and dark side but was not aware of the back side.

So, I am assuming the back side is actually the far side. We just need to differentiate this so as to not confuse others.

The same side of the moon always faces us, the reverse side isn't seen by us, so it's called the "far side" and sometimes "dark side" even though it isn't dark at all when the sun shines upon its surface. Mostly a poor job of naming it is responsible for the confusion.

reply to post by PurpleChiten
I understand and agree with everything you said but my question only had to do with the term "back side" as that gentleman alluded to earlier. I had said "back side" must mean the same as "far side".

Do you agree?

reply to post by Jaellma


Well, if you think of the near side to the Earth as the front facing side, then yes, the far side would be the backside, I think backside isn't a term you can really use though as there isn't really a front and a back.

Backside could really refer to any side opposite to what you are comparing it too.

reply to post by Jaellma


Yes, the "far side" is the same as the "back side" in this case.

Grrrr...double post. Apologies.

Originally posted by Jaellma
reply to post by PurpleChiten

 

I understand and agree with everything you said but my question only had to do with the term "back side" as that gentleman alluded to earlier. I had said "back side" must mean the same as "far side".

Do you agree?

Sorry, I got a little too carried away with information overload... it excited me!
Yes, I feel back side and far side are essentially the same thing from our perspective

im no astrologer
but i would think
this is not so.
Never heard of ever
being able to see the darkside
of the moon.

Originally posted by popsmayhem
im no astrologer
but i would think
this is not so.
Never heard of ever
being able to see the darkside
of the moon.

You wouldn't see the entirety of it, only "slivers" due to the light reflected from the earth

Originally posted by majestic3
Great find i never thought this was possible.

Never saw the moon on daylight? Really? I remember being a little child and seeing that. That´s really a common thing.

The title should change, because dark side is most often reffered to the backside, not the spots on the moon where shadow falls onto, that is facing our direction.

Seeing the backside is impossible for us, if we are on earth.


Because we live on earth only, we CAN say backside to the moons backside, from our view. there´s nothing wrong with that. Its just word picking and semantic.