If the moon's a retroreflector wouldn't it reflect the light back at the sun and we'd see nothing?
emmurphy
same confusion here.
0x484884
I also confused by this.
Also, retro-reflective objects have a very specific shape so its surprising that they occur in nature. Maybe the surface is made up of lots of small objects that are shaped like reflectors.
dtorresr
Is it possible for a surface to have different reflection functions for different frequencies of light? For example, a some range of frequencies can experience a glossy specular reflection while a different range of frequencies diffuse when they hit the surface.
CMUScottie
Same question as @ceviri. I do not get it why the moon is retro-reflective.
L100magikarp
It seems like the moon should be more diffuse than retro-reflective
keenan
@all Yeah, good point. I don't think that's a suitable description of what's going on with the moon. (To be candid: I didn't make this slide! ;-))
A better explanation is that the surface of the moon is very rough, with lots of little bumps facing in every direction. Even if the reflection off each little bump looks perfectly diffuse, in the aggregate (i.e., from a great distance) the reflection will look different.
One common model for more realistic reflections off of "rough" diffuse surfaces is the Oren-Nayar model. Maybe you can implement this in Scotty3D---and render the moon! :-D
If the moon's a retroreflector wouldn't it reflect the light back at the sun and we'd see nothing?
same confusion here.
I also confused by this. Also, retro-reflective objects have a very specific shape so its surprising that they occur in nature. Maybe the surface is made up of lots of small objects that are shaped like reflectors.
Is it possible for a surface to have different reflection functions for different frequencies of light? For example, a some range of frequencies can experience a glossy specular reflection while a different range of frequencies diffuse when they hit the surface.
Same question as @ceviri. I do not get it why the moon is retro-reflective.
It seems like the moon should be more diffuse than retro-reflective
@all Yeah, good point. I don't think that's a suitable description of what's going on with the moon. (To be candid: I didn't make this slide! ;-))
A better explanation is that the surface of the moon is very rough, with lots of little bumps facing in every direction. Even if the reflection off each little bump looks perfectly diffuse, in the aggregate (i.e., from a great distance) the reflection will look different.
One common model for more realistic reflections off of "rough" diffuse surfaces is the Oren-Nayar model. Maybe you can implement this in Scotty3D---and render the moon! :-D