Cool Moon Facts by Whip

Real astronomy, with sources. Folklore & tradition.

Fact #033 Observing

On a thin crescent you can often see the whole disc faintly glowing. That's Earth, lighting the Moon's night.

When we see a slim crescent, an astronaut on the Moon would see a nearly full Earth, four times wider than our Moon and far brighter. Leonardo da Vinci worked this out around 1510, centuries before anyone could check. The old name for it is 'the old Moon in the new Moon's arms'.

Source: NASA Moon observing (opens in a new tab) · checked Aug 2026

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