BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Brad Klein reviews the week’s astronomical highlights with Bethlehem’s ‘Backyard Astronomy Guy,’ Marty McGuire.
This week they talk about the Earth’s moon, which will be full Sunday. Traditionally each full moon is named, and the July moon is sometimes known as the Buck Moon.
Many confuse the phrases, ‘dark side of the moon’ and ‘the far side of the moon’.
“There is no permanent dark side of the moon,” according to McGuire, “because at some point in its orbit, all parts of the moon get sunlit except for the extreme north or southern poles where some craters hide … in perpetual shadow.”
But on Sunday when the Moon is full, the far side of the moon actually is also the dark side, since the fully illuminated half the moon is facing Earth.