Lunar geometry during Apollo missions (was: Digest 1105 Msg 7)

> The geometry is that at a full Moon (as observed on Earth) the Sun is on
> the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun, so at that time the Earth's
> magnetic field shields the Moon from the solar wind. At the time of the new
> Moon if one were on the lunar surface one would be exposed to much more
> radiation, and during solar proton events, one would need to be in a
> radiation shelter or it could be lethal. JSH

Uhm, no, you're describing the geometry during a lunar eclipse. If
the Earth were between the Moon and the Sun, when you looked up at the
Earth, you'd see an orange ring around the earth (sunlight being
refracted through the atmosphere) not a gibbous earth as we see in the
links I posted. There's a difference between a lunar eclipse and a
full moon.

The following website gives an excellent explanation of the system:

http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse/why_cycles.html

It's a nice idea, to send missions to the Moon during lunar eclipses
in order to lessen the radiation, unfortunately they don't last long
enough for the six-day round trip. Even considering that the Earth's
magnetic shielding covers 2-3 times as much "area" in the sky as the
Earth itself does, the moon only passes through that wake once in a
while... and it wasn't during the Apollo missions. We know this
because the photos they sent back of the Earth from the Moon were of a
gibbous Earth, not a "new" Earth.