Has anyone (in general) experimented with simulating moon lighting? It means the following. A gray ball is illuminated with light with a brightness equal to that of the sun. And at the corresponding angular distance from it, the level of illumination by the light reflected from the ball surface is measured and visually assessed. The goal is to compare the illumination intensity of real moonlight and that simulated in the experiment and to check the reliability of the calculated values.
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1$\begingroup$ It isn't clear what experiment you are asking about. Can such lighting be created? What would the effect of such lighting be on some object? The answers would be yes and nothing special. It isn't clear why moon light is needed to model the moon-earth system, or why you would actually need to create light for a mathematical model. $\endgroup$– mmesser314Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 15:55
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$\begingroup$ The goal of this experiment is to compare the illumination intensity of real moonlight and that simulated in the experiment and to check the reliability of the calculated values. $\endgroup$– Vladimir OrlovCommented Jun 6, 2023 at 16:11
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1$\begingroup$ What is your purpose? Did you do a literature search? I just did and I can find several papers, albeit of sometimes questionable quality. $\endgroup$– FlatterMannCommented Jun 6, 2023 at 16:17
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$\begingroup$ It's not clear why such an experiment would be necessary for said purpose. Those calculated values (taking the light from the sun incident on the moon combined with the moon's reflectiveness) can already be observationally verified by measuring the light reflected off the moon. $\endgroup$– Logan J. FisherCommented Jun 6, 2023 at 16:18
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$\begingroup$ "Did you do a literature search?" yes in general. I couldn't find anything acceptable "It's not clear why such an experiment would be necessary for said purpose." $\endgroup$– Vladimir OrlovCommented Jun 6, 2023 at 17:30
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Experiments like this are done all the time for such purposes as finding out properties of the moon. But they are like what @LoganJ.Fisher described.
We measure the spectrum of sunlight. We use a prism or diffraction grating to split sunlight into colors. We measure the intensity of each color. We measure the spectrum of moonlight the same way.
We divide the intensity of each color in the two spectra to find what fraction is reflected. This tells us the reflectivity of the moon.
Different kinds of rocks have different reflectivities. We can learn about what kinds of rock are on the moon this way.
answered Jun 6, 2023 at 16:41