Abstract
The aim of the present chapter will be to unfold for the reader some of the facts and arguments by which one can attempt to deduce, from photometric measures in different parts of the spectrum, the probable structure of the Moon’s surface, obscured otherwise to direct observation by an impenetrable haze of diffraction blurring, coupled with photographic plate grain and less than perfect atmospheric “seeing”. In embarking on this quest, let us classify in appropriate physical terms of what the “light” of the Moon actually consists.
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Bibliographical Notes
For determinations of the absolute magnitude of full Moon in different photometric systems cf. Martynov (1959), Fessenkov (1962; containing a comprehensive survey of earlier literature on the subject); or, more recently, Gallouet (1963) or Gehrels et al. (1964).
The law of “photometric homogeneity” of the lunar face at optical frequencies was developed by Barabashev (1923, 1924) and Markov (1924); cf. also Barabashev and Markov (1925, 1926). A recent discovery of the “opposition effect” is due to Gehrels, Coffeen and Owings (1964), followed by van Diggelen (1965), Oetking (1965) and others; while the equally anomalous photometric “new Moon” effect was pointed out by Danjon (1933).
Photometric investigations of lunar light changes, and of the reflectivity of different parts of the lunar surface, that have been published in the past forty years are so numerous that only a brief reference to most can be noted in this place. Of more significant contributions to this literature cf., e.g., Barabashev (1923, 1924, 1927); Barabashev and Chekirda (1945, 1948, 1959); Bennett (1938); Akimov (1963, 1965); Borisova (1953); Fedorets (1952); Fessenkov, Staude and Parenago (1928); Fessenkov (1929); Fessenkov and Parenago (1929); Fessenkov (1960, 1962); Graff (1949); King (1922); Markov (1924, 1927a, b, 1948, 1952); Markov and Barabashev (1925, 1926); Nikonova (1949); Öpik (1924); Orlova (1941, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1962); Rosenberg (1921); Schoenberg (1925); Sharonov (1934, 1936, 1940, 1965); Sytinskaya (1953a, b, 1957, 1963, 1965); Tchunko (1949); van Diggelen (1959); and others. In looking over this rather extensive literature the reader cannot fail to be impressed with the fact that, in the four decades between 1920–1960, the progress of work in the field of lunar photometry (and colorimetry) was largely in the hands of the Russian astronomers working at the Universities of Kharkov and Leningrad — to which contributions as distinguished as they were numerous were made by Russian lady astronomers, of the calibre of Borisova, Fedorets, Nikonova, Orlova, Petrova, Radlova (Mrs. Levin) and Sytinskaya (Mrs. Sharonov) — proving, perhaps, a subtle influence on scientific inclinations of the ancient female deity of the sky.
Almost all photometric work contained in the sources referred to above was visual or photographic. Photoelectric photometry of the Moon — going back to Stebbins and Brown (1907) — did not really commence systematically until the work of Rougier (1933, 1934a, b, 1936a, b); followed in more recent years by Gehrels, Coffeen and Owings (1964), or Wildey and Pohn (1964).
Theoretical work aiming to account for peculiar features of the lunar light changes in terms of the structural characteristics of the surface of our satellite goes back at least to Barabashev (1924); Öpik (1924); Fessenkov (1928); Schoenberg (1930); and Bennett (1938), who all tried (with a limited success) to explain the observed facts by a varying degree of surface roughness. The limitations of such an approach were in recent years discussed (and refined proposals made) by van Diggelen (1959); Minnaert (1961); Hapke and van Horn (1963), or Gehrels et al. (1964). For other investigations of the theory of lunar light changes cf. Minnaert (1941); Hapke (1963) or Wildey (1963).
As far as the spectral composition of the scattered components of moonlight is concerned, the first indications of the fact that the colour of selected lunar regions depends on the phase go back to the work of Miethe and Seegert (1911, 1914); Wood (1910, 1912), or Wright (1929). Of other investigations concerned with the colorimetry of the lunar surface cf. e.g., Wilsing and Scheiner (1909, 1921); Barabashev (1924a, 1951, 1953); Barabashev and Chekirda (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956); Fessenkov (1929b); Hargreaves (1924); Keenan (1931); Lipski (1959); Markov (1950); Platt (1958); Radlova (1941, 1943, 1957, 1960, 1962); Radlova and Sharonov (1958); Sharonov (1953, 1955, 1956a, b); Sytinskaya and Sharonov (1952 a, b); Teifel (1957, 1958, 1959, 1960); Vigroux (1956); Yezerski and Fedorets (1955, 1956); Petrova (1965); and others.
For extensive recent three-colour photoelectric photometry of selected regions of the Moon in the course of a lunation cf., in particular, Wildey and Pohn (1963) or Gehrels et al. (1964); also van den Bergh (1962) or Coyne (1963, 1965).
For a determination of the lunar reflectivity in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum cf., e.g., O’Brien and O’Brian (1931) or Stair and Johnston (1953) and, more recently, Heddle (1963); cf. also Heddle et al. (1962). For infrared albedos of the Moon determined recently from Stratoscope II cf. Wattson and Danielson (1965); while for infrared photography from ground cf. Kuprevich (1962a, b) or Rackham (1964). For infrared spectra of the Moon cf. also Adel (1946).
The polarization of moonlight, detected first by Arago as far back as 1811, and Lord Rosse (who first established the variation of its amount with the phase), was subsequently studied by Secchi (1859, 1860a, b) or Landerer (1889, 1890, 1910); cf also Salet (1922). Fundamental contributions to this field have been made by Lyot (1924 and, in particular, 1929). Of other contributions cf., e.g., Barabashev (1926); Dollfus (1952, 1962); Fessenkov and Kramer (1943); Heiles (1963); Sytinskaya (1956); Turner (1957, 1958) or Wright (1927). Photoelectric polarimetry of the Moon has in recent years been carried out by Dzhapiashvili (1957); Dzhapiashvili and Ksanfomaliti (1962); Kohan (1962, 1964, 1965); Clarke (1962, 1963, 1965) and, in particular, by Gehrels (1960) or Gehrels et al. (1964).
For recent studies of the radiation damage to the lunar surface due to the solar wind, and its photometric consequences, cf. Hapke (1964, 1965) or Dollfus and Geake (1965).
For the photometry of the “ashen light” of the Moon, the fundamental contributions are those of Danjon (1928, 1936); cf. also Öpik (1924), Grimm (1931) or Dubois (1943). A connection between the brightness of the ashen light of the Moon and the solar activity was pointed out by Dubois (1944, 1955); while Lyot and Dollfus (1949) measured the polarization of the ashen light.
The photometry of lunar eclipses constitutes so extensive a subject that only a merest outline of it could have been given in this chapter. Its student is, however, well served by existing literature, and a full account of it can be found in the recent fundamental contributions by Link (1956, 1962, 1963) and Barbier (1961). For studies of a dependence of the residual brightness of lunar eclipses on solar activity cf. Danjon (1920); de Vaucouleurs (1944); Bakharev (1953); or, most recently, Bell and Wolbach (1965).
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© 1966 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Kopal, Z. (1966). Photometry of Scattered Moonlight. In: An Introduction to the Study of the Moon. Astrophysics and Space Science Library. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6320-2_19
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