Moonlight
[moon-lahyt] 
Moonlight is the light that comes to Earth from the Moon. This light does not originate from the Moon, but is actually reflected sunlight. However, the Moon does not reflect sunlight like a mirror but emits light from those portions of its surface which the Sun's light strikes.
The "intensity" of moonlight varies greatly depending on the current lunar phase, but even the full moon typically provides only a faint illumination of about 0.2 lx, so the full moon is about 500,000 times fainter than the sun. When the moon is viewed at high altitude at tropical latitudes, the illuminance can reach 1 lx. The color of moonlight, particularly near full moon, appears bluish to the human eye compared to most artificial light sources.
Moonlight is considered by many people to be more romantic than sunlight. For example, it is referenced in several love songs.
See also
References
External links
- Phases of the Moon at USNO
- Strange Moonlight at Science@NASA
- Moonlight Brightness at LunarLight Photography
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Tuesday September 23, 2008 at 06:31:14 PDT (GMT -0700)
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