Moonlight

Moonlight is sunlight reflected from the Moon that illuminates Earth's night side. Its brightness and appearance vary with lunar phase, the Moon's surface, and atmospheric conditions.

Lunar phase: The changing apparent shape of the Moon’s sunlit portion as it orbits Earth. Phase determines how much of the Moon’s illuminated face is visible from Earth.
Nocturnal vision: Visual perception under low-light conditions, relying heavily on rod cells in the retina. Moonlight can be bright enough for rod-based vision but usually not color vision.
Earthshine: Sunlight reflected by Earth that faintly illuminates the Moon’s night side. It reverses the reflection path that produces moonlight on Earth.
Lunar deity: A deity associated with the Moon in a religious or mythological tradition. Many traditions personified the Moon and the light it casts at night.
Lunar regolith: The loose layer of dust, soil, and broken rock covering the Moon’s surface. Its grains scatter incoming sunlight back toward Earth.
Scotopic vision: Vision at very low light levels, mediated primarily by retinal rod cells. Its sensitivity sets what details and colors moonlit landscapes can reveal.
Blue Moon: A popular name for a second full Moon in a calendar month or the third full Moon in a season with four. A full Moon provides the strongest ordinary lunar illumination.
Moonlight (painting): A 1903 painting by Edvard Munch depicting a moonlit coastal landscape. Munch used moonlight to shape the scene’s stark contrast and mood.
Lunar opposition surge: The sharp increase in brightness of a rough surface when illumination and viewing directions nearly coincide. It helps make the full Moon disproportionately bright compared with nearby phases.
Lunar calendar: A calendar whose months are based on the cycles of lunar phases. Recurring moonlight patterns made lunar phases useful for marking time.

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