Let me decide if planet back side should be pitch black or not.

Darrack

Darrack
It seems pretty obvious to me, next time your at a Star Port go into Starport services and select the 'Tint me windows like a Beemer' option, from there select 'Full tin of black paint inside and out'.
Job done, now all Planets will be black all over, problem solved.
The alternative is select 'Pimp my ship with enough Wipac's to make it look like an 80's Mini' and you will have perpetual daylight.

O7
 

Ned Flandalorian

N
Spaceman-FXL5 said:
Actually, you can see a complete new Moon from earth due to the (albedo?) sunlight reflected by earth to the moons surface and back to us IIRC.

So it merely depends if there are any other close proximity bodies close by reflecting the stars light.
Obviously, the moon would not be lit up by Jupiters reflected light.
Click to expand...
A new moon is only overhead during the day, the miniscule amount of light reflected back is invisible compared to our daytime sky.
 

Fnord Velkor

Fnord Velkor
Ned Flandalorian said:
A new moon is only overhead during the day, the miniscule amount of light reflected back is invisible compared to our daytime sky.
Click to expand...

I understood them to be saying that the new-moon's surface is illuminated by light reflected from the Earth such that you can make out features even though they are not directly in sunlight.

moon-phases-c677e9c.jpg


N.B. I can attest to being able to view the surface in daylight through a telescope - the surface is so dim that to unaided vision you can only make out details during a solar eclipse.
 

Spaceman-FXL5

S
Fnord Velkor said:
I understood them to be saying that the new-moon's surface is illuminated by light reflected from the Earth such that you can make out features even though they are not directly in sunlight.

View attachment 357684

N.B. I can attest to being able to view the surface in daylight through a telescope - the surface is so dim that to unaided vision you can only make out details during a solar eclipse.
Click to expand...
Thank you Fnord, a New Moon is merly earthlight (reflected sunlight from earth), early evening or morning, NOT DIRECT SUNLIGHT.
If there was no sunlight reflected by earth (albedo 0.3), the new moon would be completely invisible or dark. It is absolutely NOT.
 

Ned Flandalorian

N
Spaceman-FXL5 said:
Thank you Fnord, a New Moon is merly earthlight (reflected sunlight from earth), early evening or morning, NOT DIRECT SUNLIGHT.
If there was no sunlight reflected by earth (albedo 0.3), the new moon would be completely invisible or dark. It is absolutely NOT.
Click to expand...
Yes, but with the naked eye you cannot see it. The same way you can't see stars in daylight; they're still there with the same brightness, just not observable. So saying you can "see" a new moon comes with a few restrictions...
 

Fnord Velkor

Fnord Velkor
Just to give some insight regarding the moon visibility from an amateur astronomer...

If you have a look at the moon in daylight in other phases you can see the non-illuminated features to varying degrees. To the naked eye they are hard to discern but looking through any instrument* (binoculars or telescope) the features are really clear (you can even try just using as loo-roll tube ;) ). In fact I have to use a filter to view the fully illuminated features in a telescope to save eye strain, the illuminated moon is very bright. So viewing the features illuminated just by Earthlight (Earthshine) can be very rewarding, in fact some people claim to have witnessed Transient Lunar Phenomena which would not be discernable on a fully-lit lunar view (never seen one myself).

www.theguardian.com

Starwatch: Earthshine lends the moon a glow

Phenomenon caused by sunlight reflecting off Earth was first explained by Leonardo da Vinci in 16th century
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

www.skyatnightmagazine.com

Earthshine: what it is, how to see it

Earthshine is when Earth's light illuminates the dark portion of the Moon’s Earth-facing side and reflects it back to us.
www.skyatnightmagazine.com www.skyatnightmagazine.com

en.wikipedia.org

Earthlight (astronomy) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org


* DO NOT POINT ANYWHERE NEAR THE SUN
 

varonica

varonica
Marvin the Martian said:
You've actually done that?

Seriously?

How is that even possible?

Did that huge void where there are no stars at all not tip you off that an entire planet was there?
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Well, where I am it's all dark, so a circle of black against the background black of intergalactic space can sometimes genuinely be missed. I also have orbit lines off because, and this is a personal opinion, I think they are silly and it's more exciting with them off....re back to the circle of black against the background of black, that's always fun, look away for a few seconds and suddenly crash. So when flying in to map planets I am operating solely by instruments, distance from planet, mapping range, it's all done using the numbers I see on my console, flying my ship.

But in the bubble, I can't imagine it would be that hard to spot! That big black emptiness looming up!
 

Darrack

Darrack
Marvin the Martian said:
Well, I've never done it a single time, let alone "often" as he suggests and I've been a good ways out in some very dark places.
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There was once, late one night on a Robby run after a few Ciders in the cockpit one of the passengers got a bit lippy about thier luggage, this earned the lot of them a nose view into a crater on (i think it was) B1 :ROFLMAO:

O7
 

varonica

varonica
Marvin the Martian said:
Well, I've never done it a single time, let alone "often" as he suggests and I've been a good ways out in some very dark places.
Click to expand...

You should try flying drunk sometimes, or very tired, both are bad ideas, but you learn by experience, if you are crashing into a lot of planets you need to learn how not to crash into planets, not just demand the game be changed so you don't have to learn anything. My opinion anyway.
 

Fnord Velkor

Fnord Velkor
Codger said:
This topic is right up there with the dumbest of them all. Good work!
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I don't think that is a terribly good response. As you know, we used to have non-pitch-black unlit hemispheres until the "ma immershun" cries removed them. It breaks their immersion to have an adaptive canopy that can show planetary features in low light* yet there is no sign of them complaining about not being blinded or burnt to a crisp (Dracula-style) near to a star thanks to the adaptive canopy. ;)

* .. and yet it can - with the magic "night vision" button - why can't that be a seamless automatic adaption of the canopy and why limit it to 30km, (it is passive, not an active sensor)? Or maybe that is just me being dumb.
 

varonica

varonica
Fnord Velkor said:
;)* .. and yet it can - with the magic "night vision" button - why can't that be a seamless automatic adaption of the canopy and why limit it to 30km, (it is passive, not an active sensor)? Or maybe that is just me being dumb.
Click to expand...

It's active, it sends pulses out, you can see them sweep across the landscape, if it was passive you wouldn't see those.
 

Fnord Velkor

Fnord Velkor
varonica said:
It's active, it sends pulses out, you can see them sweep across the landscape, if it was passive you wouldn't see those.
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If you were to view the display of a passive SONAR or RADAR you will see the raster scan sweep across or up (or down) the display - that is a function of the display not of the source. Night vision is a passive system and does not rely upon sending out pulses or any other signal.

Night vision is the use of photo-multiplication systems to capture low illumination levels (such as starlight / galaxy glow) and present a visible signal to the operator.

Do you think your space-suit sends out detectable pulses to give you night vision on-foot?
 
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