--- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
I know all that of course, but it still seemed brighter than an ecliptic alignment would account for - thus my pondering cloud cover.
Sorry for the misread. Don't know, but I don't feel a global cloud cover is a factor in the overall intensity of Earthshine. I feel it has more to do with the background brightness of the sky bringing out a better contrast and the relative Moon-Earth distance. Twilight is longer in the summer = less favorable contrast. The relative Moon-Earth distance for Earthshine is the inverse of the extraordinarily bright full Moon effect. But my RASC Observer's Handbook and MICA ephemeris is showing the Moon around 401,000 km distant on the 21st. That's closer to apogee than perigee. - Kurt __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com