You often CAN see the "dark side of the Moon". It's easiest to do around the first quarter Moon or a day or two before that.
The Sun shining on the Moon causes the Moon to reflect light, and we call this "moonlight". But if you were on the Moon and looking at the Earth, you could see the Earth by reflected sunlight, which we would call "earthlight".
When we look at the first quarter Moon, we can often see the dark side of the Moon illuminated very slightly by reflected earthlight!
We see the Moon from different angles. When the Moon is opposite to the Sun in the sky, we see the illuminated part. When the Moon is in front of the Sun, we see the dark part. At a 90 degree angle, we see half of the Moon illuminated, and half dark.
half of the moon is called the dark side and we never see it.
At the moments of First Quarter and Third Quarter, the half-disk that you see is 50% of the "light side" ... half of the moon's illuminated surface. The entire moon is still there in the sky. The 'missing' half of the disk is comprised of half of the moon's dark side, which you can't see at that time. Because it's dark !
At the time of First Quarter and Third Quarter ... when the moon looks like half of a disk in the sky ... you're looking at half of the moon's light side and half of its dark side. Of course, you can't see the half of the dark side that's right there in front of you, because it's dark.
Because it never faces the Earth.
you see the dark side of the moon when you see half the moon. because there is always a full moon but you only see some of it exept when there is a full moon
A2. The Moon keeps one side locked towards Earth. Thus whether it were illuminated or not, we can never see the far side of the Moon.Incidentally, there is a marvellous movie of the complete Lunar cycle under Moon/Tidal effects in Wikipedia.A1. The sun casts a light on one side of the moon and the other side is a dark shadow. So if there is a half moon, for example, from earth, we can see half of the lighted side and half of the dark side, which makes it look like the moon is cut in half. Since the Earth rotates, we can see a different side every night, and that's how we can see more or less of the lighted side of the moon. For a new moon, Earth can see the whole dark side and none of the lighted side. For a full moon, Earth can see the whole lighted side and none of the dark side.
At just about any phase, you can see half of the Moon's surface. Close to new moon, however, it may be hard to see the dark side.
At just about any phase, you can see half of the Moon's surface. Close to new moon, however, it may be hard to see the dark side.
The object that blocks the moon when there is a half moon is the moon itself. The moon is a sphere, so only one half of it can be sunlit at any moment. The other half is dark just because the sun is below the horizon for that half of the moon. And when we see a half moon, we are simply looking at the moon just as the line of sunrise/sunset cuts across the moon's diameter.
if the question is what is the Dark side of the moon than i can help. in the case of it being the dark side of the moon thats easy. the dark side of the moon the the side that is not visible from earth due to the fact that it doesn't face the earth ever we only see half the moon so the half we don't see is called the Dark side also it might have something to do with the fact that the sun doesn't generally shine on that side of the moon leaving it in shadow. hope this helps -seagate0606
The moon is always half dark. The half facing the sun is light, the other half is dark.However, during a lunar eclipse, the moon would be temporarily all dark since it is in the shadow of the earth.