Why was the moon so unusally bright last night?

Question

Was there another reason for the unusual amount of light being reflected other than it was a very clear night?

Answer 1

none. only the weather.

I mean, the moon is 1 light second away from earth, and the sun is 8 light minutes away from both of us... the difference of light received in, say, a difference of 30 light seconds, at a distance of 8 light minutes is negligeable...
proof is that, right now, we're the farthest away from the sun we can be... it's summer only because of earth's inclination (ie: the north half of earth gets almost perpendicular light rays, which helps heating things up, contrary to winter when we get sunlight at an angle of something like 40°, and then, everything cools down), not it's distance from the sun.
If you don't belive me, ask yourself why the south pole gets winter when we get summer, and vice versa... if it was because of our distance to the sun, we should get summer at the same time... But it's not true, we get summer during their winter. Only possible explanation: the angle of the sun rays relative to the ground.

and if you do a little maths, you can see the angle plays a great part, because between a 90° angle and a 30° angle, we lose half the sun's energy (basic trigonometry: sin90=1, sin30=1/2)

Also, the sun doesn't change its light emission too much, so it's not that either.


The only logical explanation is "weird weather conditions"

Answer 2

Oh...okay "Was there another reason for the unusual amount of light being reflected other than it was a very clear night?"

Okay oKay.
I would say how close the moon was to the sun. I mean, The moon orbits earth and earth orbits the sun. The earth doesn't always orbit the same way it orbited the sun yeasterday because it orbits to make seasons (u know what I mean?)...But I think it's because how close the moon was to the sun.

Answer 3

The albedo of the moon (light reflected to earth relative to sun light striking the moon) can depend on whether the light glances off the moon or is reflected almost directly back toward the sun (and the earth under a favorable alignment). The moon is like asphalt pavement. If someone shines a flashlight at a down angle towards pavement the reflection will be dimmer than if the same light is shined down directly beside you, right?

Answer 4

I noticed that, too. I'm in Chicago and I nearly had to close my shades.

What the pilots used to call a Bombers Moon.

Answer 5

I don't know. I noticed it too though. I think that was the brightest that I ever remember it being. It was extremely bright. It was cool though.

Answer 6

The inclination of the orbits.