naturalplastic wrote:
Consider how bright a full moon looks to you in the night sky.
Consider that (a) you're seeing it filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and (b) you're seeing the moon from almost a quarter of a million miles away.
So imagine if you were standing right on the moon's surface itsself. Imagine how bright the moon's surface would be. It would be like standing on piece of aluminum foil- not quite- but like that. So in order for you see your fellow astronauts, the moon lander itsself, and features on the moons surface your eyes would automatically adjust the brightness of the moon's surface. So the subtle little stars would vanish into the blackness of space. Like wise you would have to adjust your camera to the same light level to photograph the same sights, and the camera would be unable to pick up the little stars either.
Or that would be my guess.
My guess is that if the astronauts had been on the side of the moon away from the sun then the moon's surface would be invisible in the blackness of night. You wouldnt see the moonscape, nor the astronauts, nor space landers, unless they were to bring search lights. But the sky would be ablaze with more stars than you would see at night at the most rustic of mountain retreats on earth because not only would there be no smog- there wouldnt even be any air at all to block the stars. And it wouldnt be washed out by the moon's own bright surface.
You know this is a well-thought out, clear cut answer. I would never have thought of it. It makes logical sense and seems more plausible than the conspiracy of the fake moon landing's answer. I like this answer.
I wonder if we could go back to the moon and do experiments involving light and the reflection and refraction of light. I think it would be fascinating.
07 Nov 2013, 10:54 pm
