# There is no dark side in the moon. Matter of fact, it's all dark **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-no-dark-side-in-the-moon-matter-of-fact-its-all-dark/1012586 "2025-01-05T17:54:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-no-dark-side-in-the-moon-matter-of-fact-its-all-dark/1012586/1 "2025-01-05T17:54:58Z")
Woke up this morning with the wonderful lyrics from “Eclipse” in my head. It’s hard to explain how they make me feel. They encompass _everything_, yet still make me feel desolate? And then the heartbeat with that mystical ending. But as Ed McMahon would say to Johnny after such a list, “Amazing. What a comprehensive list. There is absolutely nothing you could add to that list…” Johnny would swivel his head to stare at Ed and, “Wrong, lunatic breath…” All that you touch And all that you see All that you taste All you feel And all that you love And all that you hate All you distrust All you save And all that you give And all that you deal And all that you buy, beg, borrow or steal And all you create And all you destroy And all that you do And all that you say And all that you eat And everyone you meet And all that you slight And everyone you fight And all that is now And all that is gone And all that’s to come And everything under the sun is in tune… But the sun is eclipsed by the moon There is no dark side in the moon, really Matter of fact, it’s all dark ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-no-dark-side-in-the-moon-matter-of-fact-its-all-dark/1012586/2 "2025-01-05T17:58:49Z")
It’s factually correct. The albedo of the Moon is only about 0.12 (that’s a scale on which the blackest black is 0 and the whitest white is 1), which is pretty dark. It’s just that we’re seeing it against a total black background, so it’s only bright by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-no-dark-side-in-the-moon-matter-of-fact-its-all-dark/1012586/3 "2025-01-05T19:51:06Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > And then the heartbeat with that mystical ending. Bit of trivia: [listen real close and you can hear a musak version of Ticket To Ride](https://youtu.be/4Z8olHzeaKE?feature=shared). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-no-dark-side-in-the-moon-matter-of-fact-its-all-dark/1012586/4 "2025-01-05T20:17:09Z")
_DSotM_ was released when I was in college. My friends and I all bought it. I put up the pyramid stickers on the glass next to my office door. Spent 990 weeks total, here and there, on the charts. It sells 8-9k copies a week 50+ years later. Whenever the album comes up on my car stereo’s memory card, I rewind and listen again to the lyrics in the OP. Something resonates. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-no-dark-side-in-the-moon-matter-of-fact-its-all-dark/1012586/5 "2025-01-05T20:49:12Z")
“Darkest Africa” is not referring to the shade under the trees in the jungle or the skin tone if it’s inhabitants but rather that it was unknown – to Victorian Europeans, anyway. Same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-no-dark-side-in-the-moon-matter-of-fact-its-all-dark/1012586/6 "2025-01-05T22:42:51Z")
The Moon is effectively the same distance from the Sun as Earth and has no meaningful atmosphere. Our sense of “bright” is based on the max visibility of the Sun, here on Earth, as viewed through a clear sky at Noon. If you stand on the Moon and look at the Sun, you’re not going to feel like you’re in the dark. You could fairly define pretty much anything to be bright or dark, given the predilection to do so.