Something that has puzzled me for years

There you go, one headach pill for POE.

Although the light from the moon is "reflected" it is polarized. You must have used a polarizing filter, cuts down reflected light, it is very similar in effect. We see it because we are junder it, move to a more accute angle, and the effect dissapears. Obviousely we cant move, but take a trip on a space ship, and you would notice. To us, the effect is more noticable, with a full moon.

All through history, the moon gas been regarded as mystical. More people go mad on the night of the full moon. As the moon is named Luna, they are lunatics. Morer people commit suicide, murder and other unmentionables at the full moon. Even the police recognise this as true. My mother always used to say, dont look at the full moon through glass, ie the window, you will go mad.

Try this experimen, put a razor blade on the window sill where the moonlight will shine on it. In one or two nights it will be blunt. Put a blunt razor blade in the same place, and in one or two nights it will be sharp. The explanation that I read for this, the edge of the blade is in fact crystal. Grows in polarized light, when blunt, but also if blunt, the act of growing puts the edge back. What makes a sharp blade blunt, is overgrowth. But, am I just mad? Been looking at the moon through glass again. Oh well, proves mum is always right.

Where is our resident astronomer when he's needed? C'mon Len! before we run out of asprins!

Len was on last night, he must have missed this post.

Anyway Andy, I'm allergic to salt and vinegar crisps, so I didn't want them in any case  .

Arrgghh!  :-)  I've been busy lately and haven't kept up on the forums (too many forums, WAAYY too little time!  Sorry!  :-)

As far as the answer is concerned, well, I'm not really sure. I know that stars can be seen through thin clouds (I've seen them aplenty during supposed observing times, when the clouds interefered!). I suspect, though, that Sue is hitting near the truth. Here's why I say that...

The apparent magnitude of the Sun is somewhere in the vicinity of -27. If that means nothing to you <g>, for a frame of reference, consider that Polaris (the north star at the end of the Little Dipper's handle) is nearly magnitude 2.0. The scale is inverse, i.e., larger numbers are fainter while smaller (and negative) numbers are brighter. Each "step" (eg., magnitude 1 to magnitude 2) is actually 2.5 times fainter/brighter, making objects 5 magnitudes different 100 times fainter/brighter than each other.

The Sun is  somewhere in the neighborhood of 450,000 times brighter than the full Moon. The full Moon reflects about half of the light striking it (IIRC, I can't verify that at the moment, but I think it's correct), so that's why the drastic difference in scattered light in the clouds.

Anyway, the upshot is, I believe, that the Sun scatters so much light in the clouds that it tends to mask its actual image. I've seen the sun through clouds, but rarely - It's too bright to study, while the Moon is easily observed.

And that's my story and I'm sticking to it! 

  Thank you, thank you!

I feel a brownie point moment coming on.