The Moon is Absent From View today. That's because it's "new" --
it's crossing the imaginary line between Earth and the Sun, so
it's hidden in the Sun's glare. It'll return to view tomorrow
evening as a thin crescent low in the west after sunset. There
are actually two reasons we can't see the new Moon. Not only is
it immersed in the sunlight, but it's nighttime across the
entire lunar hemisphere that faces our way. Nighttime means no
sunlight to reflect back toward Earth. But no sunlight doesn't
mean it's completely dark -- far from it, in fact, because
there's a full Earth hanging in the lunar sky. Earth covers
about 16 times as much area in the sky as the Moon does. And on
average, the surface of Earth is about three times brighter than
the surface of the Moon. So a full Earth shines about 50 times
brighter than a full Moon, illuminating the lunar landscape as
brightly as late twilight here on Earth. And from any given
point on the lunar hemisphere that faces Earth, our planet
always hangs in the same spot