What does the moon reflect light off of?
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Think of it this way.  The earth has 4 sides, just because ONE OF THEM is looking at the moon and the Sun is facing another side, means nothing.  There is over 90,000,000 miles between the earth and the sun, so we only get a fraction of a percent of its total output of energy.  The Moon while it is in space going around us, is no longer "blocked" by the earth and can now receive its share of light from the sun.  HOWEVER, you may be surprised to learn that the albedo (reflection of light) from the moon is mostly caused by the Earth as much as the Sun.  That is, where it is now daylight on Earth is relecting off of the moon also.
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While you could put a big mirror on the Moon to give more sunlight to the Earth, it would not always be there. The Moon is not always in the sky at night. Sometimes you see a full Moon which is up all night and sometimes a crescent Moon that sets a couple hours after the Sun.\nAnyway, why would you want to do that? To increase global warming? To disturb astronomers who need dark skies? To ruin the natural sleeping and waking cycles of animals and people?
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Light from the moon passing through Ice crystals in Earth's upper atmosphere.\n\nI have included links to a couple of web pages that include photos and explanations.
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If the moon was covered with aluminium foil, the reflected light would be brighter but not as bright as daylight, in accordance with the proportion of the moon that is visible.\n\nAnd yes, the earth would heat up a little, because the reflection contains not just extra light, but extra heat as well... and since night is the time when the shadowed earth dissipates the heat, it wouldn't be able to do that if the moon was reflecting some warmth.
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Our eyes perceive energy in the visible light range that is either emitted from a source, or reflected off an object.  In space, the light sources are stars, like our Sun.  Objects like planets and comets and asteroids and dust, reflect the light emitted by the stars.  Since space is a vacuum, there isn't anything to reflect the light, therefore it is black.
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refraction from the atmosphere magnifies.  When the moon, or sun, is low on the horizon, you're looking through more of the atmosphere to see it.
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The moon is made of rocks with a high mineral content, including rhyolite.  The combination of materials absorbs all colors of light relatively equally, reflecting a combination of colors that is translated by our eyes as gray.
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All objects in our solar syatem get their light from our sun. How? Light travels from the sun and is reflected by the object, in this case the moon, and we see the reflected light.
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You see the reflected sunlight- Each planet has a different reflectivity index, termed the albido.  Venus, for example, is covered in light-colored clouds, so it has a high albedo, and reflects a lot of light, making it a very bright planet.  Just for interst, the moon has an extremely low albedo, around the same as black powder- If the moon had an albedo as high as venus, or even better where covered in white powder like snow, moonlight would be bright enough read fine print by and we wouldnt need streetlights on clear nights with a full moon.
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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
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Any solid mass in the heavens has some reflective properties the same as here on earth.\nA white sheet will reflect more sunlight than a black (or dark colored) sheet. In reflecting more sunlight/energy, it absorbs more heat.  I'm sure you've felt this in dark colored cars in the summer or have watched dark road patches expand and melt quicker than the packed white snow on the same surface in the winter.\nWell, all solid bodies have a certain "color"; \nMars is red because of all the iron oxide (rust) on the surface (it has no cloud cover) and that is the reflected light that we see. \nVenus looks bright, not because of its surface, but because of the clouds in the atmosphere (alot of them in its sky) and it reflects alot of the sunlight.\nStars twinkle.\nPlanets do not twinkle.\nOur moon is covered with a fine dust, greyish, almost white in color and that is the reflected light that we see.\nIf you look at the sky during a new moon you can faintly see the very dark grey of the moon. This is the light that is reflected off the earth, which hits the moon and is reflected back to us (very faint).\nMr Giraffe...all objects are reflective, even dark ones. That's how we see them.\nWhite is the entire spectrum of visible light being reflected. It is a combination of all colors.\nBlack is the absence of color being reflected.\nWhen you see the color red, it is the red part of the spectrum that is being reflected from the object. All the other colors are being absorbed. So what you see is that which is not absorbed by the object, but refkected by it.\nAny questions?
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The moon is basically a great big lump of dull coloured rock that floats around quarter of a million miles from us.  Just like earth, it's illuminated by the sun so what you're seeing is reflected sunlight.\n\nIt can appear as different colours due to the atmosphere here on earth.\n\nWhen the moon is up in the sky you're looking at it through a thin layer of atmosphere but when it's low on the horizon you're looking through a greater amount of atmosphere.\n\nThe way that our atmosphere breaks up sunlight into differnt colours (Rayleigh Scattering) affects the colour that the moon appears to be.  So too can particles in the atmosphere - particularly dust and volcanic ash which often gives it a reddish tinge.
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it's because they use the moon to navigate.  artificial light confuses them.
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Because of the way the moon rotates around the Earth we only get to see one side of it. The dark side of the moon is the side that faces away from us ALL THE TIME. You can only get to see it by going out in a spaceship or by looking at photos from NASA.
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You can even see the Moon in the daytime because it is big and brightly lit by the Sun. The surface of the Moon is about as reflective as an asphalt road--rather dark but not totally black. When you look at the Moon, you are seeing the light which reflects off it. This is not nearly as bright as the Sun, but it is up to 100,000 times as bright as the brightest nighttime star. \nDuring the day, the brightness of the sky washes out the light from the stars: a region of the sky including a bright star is only very slightly brighter than a region of the sky without a bright star, so your eye cannot notice the difference. However, the region of the sky containing the Moon is much brighter, so you can see it. You can also sometimes see Venus during the day if the conditions are right and you know exactly where to look, but anything dimmer is lost. \n\nIt might be useful to think of the sun as a large light bulb, and the moon as a large mirror. There are situations where we can't see the light bulb, but we can see the light from the bulb reflected in the mirror. This is the situation when the moon is out at night. We can't see the sun directly because the earth is blocking our view of it, but we can see its light reflected from the moon. However, there are also situations where we can see both the light bulb and the mirror, and this is what is happening when we see the moon during the day. You can explore this for yourself with a light and a hand mirror. Depending on which way you face (away from the light or sideways to the light) you can see either just the mirror, or both the light and the mirror. \n\nI hope this helps!
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The same reason that your carpet isn't or your tee shirt isn't. The only light we see anything by is sunlight, but the light of the sun is reflected back in different colours according to the material reflecting it; in the case of the moon, grey dust.
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The sun radiates light, thus it is emitted all around it. The moon reflects light from the sun, thus only the area facing the sun will be light.