Moon-gazers best assemble
their squads, because tonight, if you look up into the sky, you’ll be able to
see ‘planetshine’.
Also identified as
‘Earthshine’ and ‘the old Moon in the new Moon’s arms’, the cosmic phenomenon
takes place numerous times throughout the year – though, the phase between
April and June is prime-time to witness the glow of ‘the dark side of the
moon’.
Tonight, April 26,
the Moon is set to be 12% illuminated i.e. the sliver of light – creating the
effect of a slightly glowing crescent moon – will be slightly difficult to see.
However, it is still worth a sight to check out – but what precisely is
planetshine?
Earthshine 🌒#Moon #earthshine #planetshine #Astrophotography @VirtualAstro @govertschilling @Marco_Langbroek pic.twitter.com/9WSSzM0aFr— CGathier (@c_gathier) April 25, 2020
Throughout the
course of a lunar month (29 days), we watch as the Moon converts from crescent,
to full, to New, which is the instant it becomes near-lost in the Sun’s light
and is hardly visible to us.
What’s so unlikely
about this time of year then, if the Moon does this all the time? Well, between
the time period of April and June in the northern hemisphere, Earth’s albedo
(sunlight reflected off the Earth from the Sun) is mostly intense.
Really cool to see earthshine during the Moon's crescent phase 🌙 pic.twitter.com/2uFJRfOa7G— raven yu (@cosmicwandere05) April 26, 2020
Basically,
Earthshine occurs when sunlight reflects off Earth onto the dark portion of the
Moon, generating a lit-up waxing crescent on the left-hand side. Keen
lunar-heads have been looking up into the sky over the weekend – don’t worry,
if you didn’t know of this phenomenon occuring, there’s still a chance to see
it tonight.
Further to that, if
you’re engaging cloudy skies later, planetshine will also be visible 12 nights
after the Super Flower Moon happening on May 7. It’s a pretty good time to be a
sky-gazer.