In a total solar eclipse, is the Moon brighter or darker than the sky?

Question

Anybody ever seen one in real life?

Can you see the moon's earthshine? The zodiacal light?



When I say 'sky' I mean the darkest part of it, away from the corona and twilight.

Answer 1

Yes, I have seen two. The Moon seems darker than the sky, but I could see some features; the earthshine is quite remarkable. This could be an optical delusion.

To see the zodiacal light clearly, that takes a dark night and good eyes. But you can also see it before dawn or after sunset.

Perhaps this picture will help.

Answer 2

Total Solar Eclipse - the moon passes between the earth and the sun. The side of the moon facing us is not illuminated by the sun so it appears as a black circle in front of the sun. It is not safe to look at the sun even during totality, safer than no eclipse but you tend to look longer and it does more damage. So the answer to this part of question is - the moon appears darker than the sky.

Earthshine - is the sunlight reflected off of the moon that we see on earth, it is then reflected back to the moon and dimly lights up the rest of the side of the moon facing us that the sun cannot see. As stated above, the face of the moon is on opposite side from sun, no light is reflected off of moon, consequently no earthshine.

Zodiacal light - the twilight type glow that appears over the horizon at the spot the sun just set or is about to rise, somewhat concentrated towards tha path of the sun across the sky. Hence its name. Does not always appear and shoudl not be confused with an apparent tower of sunlight known as a solar pillar found at the same spot.

Answer 3

I have seen one total solar eclipse in person. The sky never gets totally dark, it is more like twilight, so the dim zodiacal light cannot be seen. As long as any part of the Sun is uncovered it is dangerous to look directly at it without a filter, so I can't say I really looked for an outline of the Earthshine lit dark side of the Moon that close to the Sun. That being said, I didn't see one.

Answer 4

During a total eclipse of the Sun, the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun. The side of the Moon facing the Earth is completely in the dark and it looks like a black hole in the sky surrounded by the Sun's corona. The Moon is completely black and unrecognisable as the Moon. It is, perhaps, the most spectacular natural phenomenon I have ever seen.

Answer 5

Necessarily darker otherwise the photos would appear a black disc with a shining corona around over a black sky as background.. What you actually see is a kind of twilight. The earthshine is blend by the corona's shine

Answer 6

Have not seen any yet.

The intensely bright disk of the Sun is replaced by the dark outline of the Moon, and the much fainter corona is visible. During any one eclipse, totality is visible only from at most a narrow track on the surface of the Earth.

Answer 7

solar means sun and eclipse means tp dissapear. So when u have a solar eclipse the sun dissapears from our view. THe moon becomes darker and passes allined with the sun greating an umbra and a penumbra and that is what only certain parts of the world can see the eclipse when it happens

Answer 8

I have seen one. No you cannot see the moon's earthshine. I have never seen zodiacal light so don't know on that.

Answer 9

Because the moon is between earth and the sun making the sun dark and since the moon is small it only covers the inside of the sun from our view

Answer 10

the sun is behind the moon so it would be brighter