Re: Earth's Magnitude

From: Björn Gimle (b_gimle@algonet.se)
Date: Sun Jun 29 2003 - 03:21:26 EDT

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    ...
    > based upon the Earth being 10 time higher albedo than the moon, 13.5
    times
    > greater cross section area and 8 times closer, I calculate that the
    Earth would
    > be 9400 times as bright.  10,000 times would mean exactly 10 magnitudes
    > (2.511886...etc raised to the 10th power) I would guess that, depending
    on the
    > phase of the earth beneath you, it would be 10 mag.s brighter than the
    moon.
    > If it were full (you standing between the sun and the Earth), it would
    be mag.
    > -22 or -23 (bright - take fast film!)
    
    In the last comment, you are neglecting that Earth is not a point source
    of light. What if I take a landscape at 1 km range - not another 22
    magnitudes
    brighter! The surface brightness is still just 10 times that of the full
    moon,
    because we receive the same solar illumination.
    Jupiter is 25 times fainter, not accounting for the albedo.
    
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