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On Dec 2, 2004, at 7:30 PM, in discussing the surface brightness of the
moon at various phases, George Huxtable wrote:

> But the recent Jupiter occultation of November 9th, which Frank was
> presumably taking as his example, occurred 5.5 days after Moon's last
> quarter, which was on Nov 5th. The Moon must have appeared as a faint
> thin
> crescent. By that time the Moon's phase had changed through 70
> degrees, and
> the direction of sunlight falling on the limb had changed by the same
> amount; so the resulting brightness at the Moon's surface would then
> be 4.4
> cos 70, or about 1.5 times as bright as the surface brightness of
> Jupiter.

I wonder whether the non-level surface of the moon --there are craters,
etc-- would alter the brightness, perhaps making it less variable with
changes in sun angles.  Alternatively, I suppose, integrating over the
various surface angles might give the same brightness as if the moon's
surface were smooth.  I would guess the surface brightness might have
been measured fairly thoroughly by astronomers?

Fred

   

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