When we look at the moon in the sky, is what we see just a small piece?

Question

I'm not talking about full moon vs half moon, what I'm asking is whether we only see light from the sun reflecting off a small portion of the moon (think of a golf ball, and looking at only one of the divits...

Answer 1

To make it simple, you are seeing the full face of the moon, not the equivalent of a dimple in a golf ball.

Answer 2

memere is completely incorrect. There is no permanent "dark side" of the moon. All parts of the moon see day and night during the 29 days of its phase cycle as it revolves around the Earth. There IS a side of the moon that never faces Earth, because its rotation is locked towards Earth by eons of tidal forces (this is usually the case with every planets' moons). But the moon still rotates with respect to the sun.

Even Pink Floyd understood this. Though their disclaimer is subdued at the end of the song.

Answer 3

Because when you see a part of the moon, it is because the earth is between the sun and the moon and blocks part of the light. There is about a 28 day cycle between full moons.

Answer 4

There is a dark side of the moon and no light ever touches it. So we are not seeing the entire moon, however, what we do see, is the size of the moon, It's just the other half on the other side that we don't see.

Answer 5

When looking at the full moon, we see roughly half of the moon, or one face. We can see large craters (those are the darker areas - look grey).

Answer 6

Nope, during a full moon you see the whole thing, or at least the side of it that is visible from Earth.

Answer 7

it reflects from half of the surface, so we're seeing half

I know what you're saying, but the light reflects from all points on that half, which is what we see.

Answer 8

i don't think so, because it would be the same small spot every time(craters and everything)