The closer the Moon, the more eyes are kept on its beautiful view.
We can observe the full Moon when it is facing the Sun, being on the opposite side to the Earth. Sun light goes through the lunar soil and we are able to see Moon shining.
However, the Moon is quite a mysterious satellite. Here we've found 10 facts about Moon you could have never known.
Generally, there are 4 types of lunar months
Our month length corresponds approximately to the duration of time it is needed for our satellite to go through all of phases. From excavated findings, scientists have stated that people from approximately Paleolithic period took a count of days regarding lunar phases. However, there are for sure four different types of lunar months. The periods indicated below are average numbers.
1) Anomalistic - the time it takes for the Moon to orbit the Earth, measured from the one closest point in its orbit to Earth to the next one: 27 days, 13 hours, 18 minutes, 37.4 seconds.
2) Nodical - the duration of time needed for the Moon to go through one of its nodes and come back to it: 27 days, 5 hours, 5 minutes, 35.9 seconds.
3) Sidereal - the duration of time needed for the Moon to make full circle around the Earth, making stars a reference point: 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11.5 seconds.
4) Synodical - the duration of time needed for the Moon to make full circle around the Earth, making Sun a reference point (a period from new moon to new moon): 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.7 seconds. This month is called synodic and it is widely used today to plan calendars and determine the season.
We see slightly more than half of the moon from Earth
A lot of sources will state that we can not see more than the half of the Moon's surface, because the Moon rotates only one time during every Earth cycle. However, the real information states that we can actually see a little bit more of Moon's surface during her cycling around our planet. We see approximately 60% of lunar surface.
Moon's rotation norm is always the same, but its revolution isn't. It means that we can see a little more Moon on its edges sometimes. In other words the rhythm of Earth and Moon cycling isn't fully synchronized, though they come to the finish line together in the end of the month. Libration of longitude is a scientific term for this phenomenon.
So the Moon gives us a possibility to see a little bit more of its beauty. The rest 40% of Moon surface is hidden from our view. The one can see the other side of the Moon only by flying up there. But, from this perspective the Earth would be unseen.
It would take almost 400 thousands of Moons to copy the brightness of the sun
The magnitude of full shining Moon is 12.7. Speaking about the Sun it is 14 magnitudes more - 26.7.The proportion of the Sun and Moon brightness can be viewed as 398,110 to 1. This is the amount of the full Moons you will need to place in the sky to achieve the same illumination, but it is impossible as they simply won't fit into our sky.
According to the calculations - the sky we see is 41,200 square degrees. The Moon's area is only 0.2 square degrees, because it measures a half-degree across. So the quantity of the Moons in the sky that we can fit in is 206,264 full Moons, and it still lacks of more than 190,000 full Moons to provide the same light as the Sun gives.
The first- or last-phases are not as bright as a full moon
If the surface of the Moon were very smooth and slick, it wouldn't influence its brightness anyway. Generally, it would be half as shiny.
The surface of the Moon is really uneven. It can be seen clearer along the terminator line, where the surface is tumbled with different craters and mountains and their shadows, also small grains of lunar dust can change the brightness of lunar surface. The side of the Moon we see is filled with different hidden areas, and light can not reach there. That's why in its first phase the Moon is 1\11 as bright as when it's full.
During the first and last phases of the Moon it is a bit brighter, because the locations of these phases reflect sunbeams more intensely.
