why does the moon appear completely dark in different months?
606605
It's not different months, it's times of the months. This is because the of the moon's position in relation to us. The moon always faces us with the same side but that is not always the lit side. When it is a full moon, the sun light is reflecting off of "our" side of the moon. In a new moon, it is reflecting off of the other side.
62845
One of the biggest misconceptions about the Moon is that its phases are caused by the Earth's shadow. The Earth's shadow causes eclipses, but it has nothing to do with phases. Rather, the phases of the Moon are produced by the alignment of the Moon and the Sun in the sky. \nThe orientation of Sun and Moon determines the phase of the Moon. At new moon, the angular distance of the sun and moon is small, less than a few degrees. At first quarter, when the moon is half full, the Moon lies 90 degrees east of the Sun. As an example, if you were to point to the setting sun with one arm and to the moon with the other, the angle between your arms would be 90 degrees. At full, the moon is 180 degrees from the sun and at last quarter, it is 90 degrees west of the sun. \n \n\nThe new moon is essentially invisible because it is between the earth and sun and therefore lost in the glare of the sun. Even on day 2 or 3 it is tough to spot the moon because it is just the tiniest sliver and still very close to the sun. The waxing crescent moon grows till it is about half full in the phase we call first quarter. From there it grows to full moon and then begins to shrink back to third quarter, waning crescent and finally back to new moon. \n\nThe first and last quarter moons mark the halfway points between the new moon and full moon. The first quarter moon is illuminated on the right hand side. The last quarter moon is illuminated on the left hand side. It seems conflicting to call a half full moon first of last quarter, but the quarter refers to the position of the moon in the sky, not it's phase. A quarter moon is one quarter of a full circle (90 degrees) away from the sun. \n\nThe lighted part of the Moon always points the way to the Sun. This means that a waxing crescent moon in the western sky at sunset has the lighted part on the right which is the direction of the Sun. The sequence of the lunar phases always proceeds with the lighted part of the Moon growing from right to left until the moon reaches full. After full moon, the light recedes from right to left until new moon. \n\nThe line boundary between dark and light on the Moon is called the terminator. It is rarely an even line because the surface of the Moon is not smooth. The terminator is closest to a straight line at first and last quarter. Librations affect exactly what portion of the face of the Moon is facing the Earth, during first and last quarter phase, the terminator's exact location may vary. This is illustrated when the terminator does not line up with the Moon's meridian at first and last quarter. In other words, you'd think that during first and last quarter when the Moon is half full, that the meridian (the imaginary line which runs from north to south on the Moon,) would be right on the terminator, but it isn't so. In fact the terminator can be almost 8 degrees off to either side of the meridian.
541440
It is the same reason that sunsets are red and orange. The sun is shining all of the colors of the rainbow on to the moon, and the moon is reflecting all of those colors pretty evenly. Actually during Harvest moon this happens and also one can see this on any full or nearly full moon as the moon is rising.\nWhen the moon is low, the reflected sunlight has to travel through more air than when the moon is high in the sky. Colors at the blue or violet end of the rainbow(spectrum) are easily scattered or bent(refracted) by the atmosphere. (That's why the sky is blue: you're seeing blue sunlight scattered in every direction.) So it's the colors at the red and orange end of the spectrum that pass through the atmosphere and into your eyes.\nFor more info on the moon visit http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/planetarium/mooncal/moonfaq.htm
108945
You see the darkside during a fullmoon since what you see was the darkside two weeks earlier. I guess you mean the far side. That is a little harder but the Apollo program generated alot of pictures of the farside. Also numerous spaceprobes has mapped the entire surface of the moon. Should be plenty of pictures just on NASAs moon site.
405607
The phases of the moon occur due to its relative position to us and the sun. The sun always shines on half of the moon (except on the rare occassion when the earth is in the way causing a lunar eclipse). If the moon is behind the earth, we see it as a full moon as we can see all of the lit side. When the moon is beside the earth, we see half the lit side and half the side in shadow, which appears to us as a half moon. When it's in front of the earth its a new moon which isn't visible as we can only see the side of the moon in shadow. In between the stages we see the crescent waxing and waning moons.
1087183
The moon has a side that always faces us! That's not always filled with light though. That's why we have phases of the moon.
77452
New Moon - The Moon's unilluminated side is facing the Earth. The Moon is not visible (except during a solar eclipse).\nWaxing Crescent - The Moon appears to be partly but less than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is increasing.\nFirst Quarter - One-half of the Moon appears to be illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is increasing.\nWaxing Gibbous - The Moon appears to be more than one-half but not fully illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is increasing.\nFull Moon - The Moon's illuminated side is facing the Earth. The Moon appears to be completely illuminated by direct sunlight.\nWaning Gibbous - The Moon appears to be more than one-half but not fully illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is decreasing.\nLast Quarter - One-half of the Moon appears to be illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is decreasing.\nWaning Crescent - The Moon appears to be partly but less than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is decreasing.\nalso go to \nhttp://tm.ask.com/r?t=an&s=a&uid=09220EDD36C718A34&sid=144454D585BB38B34&o=0&qid=0F1134A30408E249734C01A371E2BB7D&io=0&sv=0a300524&ask=moon+phases&uip=480e4587&en=te&eo=1&pt=Moon%20Phases&ac=6&qs=1&pg=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Faa.usno.navy.mil%2Ffaq%2Fdocs%2Fmoon_phases.html
164369
First, the ocean tides would be significantly less noticeable (the sun also acts minutely on the ocean tides).  Second, it would be rather dark at night.  Third, the calendar would be much different from the way we know it now since a month was based loosely around the lunar cycle.\n\nMuch of history would also be different since many civilizations used the moon to define timer periods.  The Apollo space program would not have happened.  It is even questionable whether the climate on our planet might have been different without the moon.
869305
The appearance of the Moon is also dependent on the fact the the Earth is rotating on its axis. Objects appear at the horizon, drift overhead and slip below the horizon again. that is the main reason the Moon looks as it does.\n\n;-D The Moon is romantic! Let's not forget that!
800776
1.  Longer shadows\n2.  The moon's gravitational pull and the sun's gravity also\n3.  The sun\n4.  counterclockwise, west, east\n5.  D\n6.  The Earth's Rotation\n7.  The earth is at a slant compared to it's solar revolution, so the earth recieves more sunlight in different areas, and the earth's solar revolution isn't a perfect circle, AND the earth wobbles\n8.  The sun's reflection causes the moon to light up, and so the sun's position determin's the shape.\n9.  the earth and the sun and the moon have to line up in a linear fashion, perfectly, not just good enough for a full moon
448631
The Moon does not produce any heat on its own.  The temperature on the surface is dependent upon the amount of sunlight it is receiving at that time.  There is no known water on the Moon so it is very much affected by hydrostatic electricty; much as we are on a day with very low humidity.  Hence the surface particles tend to stand apart creating microfissures which absorb sunlight resulting in a rather low reflectivity even tho the Moon appears bright.  Under other conditions it could be even brighter.
888601
Do you have a calender? Most of them show the dates of First Quarter, Full Moon, Last Quarter, and New Moon within a day of their ocurrance. The discrepancy may be due to time-zone difference and what geographical area they are using (local or GMT or something else). There are various websites that list it too.\n\nOccasionally, a calender will erroneously list the moon's phases opposite what they actually are. I have a daily cat cartoon page calender which has this particular error. Thus it will list the moon's phase as New when clearly it is full looking up at the night sky. But generally most calenders don't have such blatent errors. \n\nThis question is asked over and over again. Rather than directly answer your question, I have hopefully pointed the way for you to get the answer yourself instantly anytime.
503710
no moon occurs when moon is covered by the shadow of earth,\nsimilarly on full moon moon is not covered by the shodow. all the phases of moon are caused by the shadow of earth which falls on moon bcoz of sun
725184
Great question. The light from the Sun is only part of the answer. The Moon has had its surface  pounded by meteor impacts. These throw up molten droplets of rock which cool and solidify as small glassy spheres and drop back onto the surface, As there is no atmosphere on the Moon the particles don't get blown around and abraded (which would make them dull). So a lot of the Moons surface is covered with a layer of highly reflective particles and thats why its so bright.\nThe lines painted down the road work on the same principal. The paint contains small, round glass particles to make it highly reflective whereas the road remains dark.
560103
yes, we see the dark side of the moon every new moon.  the dark side of the moon is just the night side, the side on which the sun is not shinning.  the far side of the moon is the side which is permanently turned away from us because the moon spins with about the same period as it orbits the earth, but the moons orbital speed does change a little because its orbit is not a circle but an ellipse.  the moon orbits faster when it is closer and slower when it is farther away.  this means we get to peek at a little of the far side every month.
786050
This effect is caused by the atmosphere of the earth. \n\nThe reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight must pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the blue, green, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. That's why you only see yellow, orange, or red.\n\nThe moon can have an orange color at any time of the year. Sometimes the moon appears orange even when it's directly overhead. This occurs when there's a lot of dust, smoke, or pollution in the atmosphere. The size of those particles will determine the type of color you will see.\n\nHope that helps! ^^
536496
When the light from the sun hits the moon, it is reflected to us which causes "Moonlight". This is the same light and source that allows us to see a bit of the shadows on the moon. \n\nThe suns and moons position in relation to one another is also what gives us the phases of the moon.  When the moon is directly opposite of the sun (with Earth not being directly in the line of sight) this gives us our full moon. \n\nIn short, there is only one type of light on the moon, the suns light hitting the moons surface.