In article <408097cb$1@news.povray.org>, Alain <aze### [at] qwertygov> 
wrote:

> You're on the moon, that mean NO air -> shadows are SUPOSED to be pitch 
> black. I remember the Apolo lunar expeditions, unless there is something 
> nearby to reflect light into a shadowed area, there was absolutely 
> nothing to be seen but black.

Your argument has actually been used to claim the moon photos were 
fake...but it's wrong. There *was* something to reflect the light...the 
ground, which happens to be covered in dust which is unusually good at 
reflecting light back in the general direction it came from. In most of 
the images I've seen, this was quite clear...the surrounding brightly 
lit surface would diffuse light onto the shadowing object, which would 
diffuse light onto the shadowed part of the surface. The shadowed side 
of the object would be fairly well lit, and the ground shadow dimly lit. 
Only areas shadowed both from the sun and from the ground were really 
dark.

http://www.iangoddard.net/moon01.htm


> The shadowless light must be extremely dim, it represent star's light, 
> globaly, that's less than about 0.001% that of the sun.

Starlight would be negligible, even without the atmosphere to block it. 
Earthlight could be quite bright at night, however. Think of how bright 
nights with full moons can be, and consider that Earth is about 3.67 
times as big as the moon. (though the lower albedo will compensate 
somewhat)

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: <chr### [at] tagpovrayorg>
http://tag.povray.org/

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