Okay, did this in just a few seconds, so it's not perfect, but by positioning the light source above and behind the moons, and by putting the smaller moon a little bit closer to the camera than the other, I got a http://i.imgur.com/ur7zy.jpg.

To me, it looks like there's two different light sources in both pictures, but I know for a fact there's only one in mine.

ETA: Of course, now that I think about it, if the light (sun) was set up that way, it would be day time, so that doesn't really work, but that's the way the light source looks to me in the OP's picture.

It's Nirn. Screw logic

Besides, it's kinda neat when you think about it. The moons have their shadows wherever the heck they want to

@MrBob:
That result has been gained from having both moons partially eclipsed by the planet, which is not how they are lit in the game.

@Echonite:
While it's true that light can be distorted by gravity, this is not an effect you should expect to see as a result of that.


For all intents and purposes, it makes sense to assume that (so long as the moons are not eclipsed by Nirn, which never happens in-game as far as I'm aware) the light shining on both moons could be treated as being parallel, given their distance from the light source. They should be lit from the same angle. This is all assuming, of course, that the sun and moons are working similarly to how they would work in our universe, as seems likely.

Cipscis

I'm really feeling disturbed that people are ignoring the laws of physics when it comes to light.....this is taught in highschool.....

It IS how they are lit in game it's how our own damn moon is lit at night! Except for when we have a full moon

You are the one ignoring the laws of physics not I. If it would really help you understand I could do a real life example with a flash light.

No, it's not. Here, maybe http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Lunar-Phase-Diagram.png will help.

Cipscis

Actually someone already proved the moons to be properly lit. Admittedly I was wrong about the sun and flashlight but the way the light is casted on the moon is actually logical taking the size, position and light into account.

@Caldera513:
I must have missed that post, and I can't find it now. Which one were you talking about?

Cipscis

The one posted by MrBob. Again none of us here are clearly experts or we could actually -explain- how it would or wouldn't work without using a flashlight as an example because I know factually that it is admittedly a poor example.

Oh, no, like I said that was lighting the moons by eclipsing them with the planet, which isn't how they're actually lit. If you look at the diagram I posted, hopefully you'll be able to see what I mean.

Cipscis

EDIT:

If you want to use a flashlight as an example, you have to imagine a flashlight that's both very strong and very far away. So far away, in fact, that the rays of light leaving it are practically parallel by the time they reach the moons. There is nothing obstructing that light, and the moons are not particularly far apart from one another relative to their distance from the sun (their light source), so they should be lit from the same angle.

Cipscis

Guys, MrBob is correct...the dark area on the moons is the shadow from Nirn with the light parts lit up because that is all that is poking around the edge of Nirn enough to catch the light going past from the sun which is currently behind Nirn from where the OP screen shot is taken. With that much crescent, they probably aren't even seeable past the edge of Nirn from the Sun's point of view, it would be refracted light...basically bent around Nirn to a certain extent by the atmosphere.

Just think it's exactly like our own moon...it goes through its various full moon, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full eclipse, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, full moon cycle where the dark area is the shadow of the Earth.

MrBob's example makes perfect sense, nearly hitting the layout and eclipse shadow spot on first try.

I initially thought "nice spot" as well about the OP but after a couple minutes of contemplation and then seeing MrBob's exercise in logic, it all makes perfect sense.

If the Sun were in such a position to light up Securda as it lights up Masser in the OP screenshot, it would be day time (prob around 3-4 oclock, AM or PM depending on how the Sun rises and sets on Nirn in TES solar system) and the moons barely visible yet.

Cheers,

Craig

Except that's not how our own moon works. The dark side of our moon isn't the shadow of Earth, it's the shadow of the moon, just like the dark side of Earth is the shadow of Earth.

Also, if you look at the original screenshot again, you'll notice that the dark areas on both moons wouldn't fit well with the shadow of a sphere. This is a mistake on Bethesda's behalf, nothing more.

Cipscis

Just try and visualise it from the Sun's point of view...this little mspaint diagram I just whipped up may help , showing the two moons peaking out from behind Nirn which is what the light from the Sun hits.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a145/Valheru007/NirnMoons.jpg

Cheers,

Craig

If you completely ignore physics then yes.

Yes, I know what MrBob was trying to show, but that's not how the moons appear to be lit in the original screenshot, as the shadow of a sphere wouldn't fit in that area, and the shadows on the moons would visibly (and very obviously) change as they moved relative to one another, which doesn't happen. Likewise, that isn't how our own moon is lit, except in the relatively rare case of a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse.

Cipscis

We cannot see the dark side of the moon from Earth as it is on the side facing away from us...why would it be called the dark side of the moon if we could see it in full day light at times when its full moon? If you simply watched the latest Transformers movie "Dark of the Moon" you would have learned this LOL

Also the shape of the shadow's crescent is explained by one moon being closer that the other to Nirn, therefore the shadow changes scale.


Umm...lunar partial eclipses happen all the time and is what causes the shadow on the moon...total solar eclipses happen more often than solar eclipses but are only viewable from certain places on the earth for very short periods of time and so are really more rare than solar eclipses which form part of the normal moon's lunar eclipse cycle.

Cheers,

Craig

Actually we can see the dark side of the moon from Earth, except when it's a full moon. The moon is tidally locked to Earth, meaning that the same side of the moon is always facing Earth, but as the moon rotates around Earth it is lit from a different angle (relative to its own rotation) by the sun.

Because of this, a full moon will only be visible at night, as the moon and sun must be on opposing sides of the sky from one another for the moon to be lit in that way. I haven't seen the latest Transformers movie, but if they depicted a full moon during the day time then they made a mistake. Take a look at the first diagram I posted in reply to MrBob - that shows what I'm talking about. It's from Wikipedia, perhaps you should take a look at this page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase

Cipscis

Wow....I honestly cannot believe we are arguing how LIGHT Works.....and that there are people arguing against it....

Well I think what I'm trying to justify is the lighting of the second moon, not the first. The first moon seems to be visually similar to how our moon is lit. The second is something I am trying to crack as it will take more than high school level understanding of physics to justify it defying the laws of physics. Well, this is assuming that it all follows our rules. It doesn't quite so much though as it seems the planets and moons are actually other planes in TES.

the only reason i brought this up, is because I saw two light sources hitting both moons differently. i have never seen this happen in Morrowind, or Oblivion. and I look up at the sky in these games a lot.

Cipscis is right about our moon. I hadn't quite rememberd how that worked but after brushing up on it, our moon is lit by the sun because it is far enough away from the earth(which is close enough to the sun) so that it does infact have only it's own shadow which is what we see most of the time with the exception of the lunar eclipse when the earth actually does cast a shadow onto the moon, I'm asuming because the orbit of the moon gets close enough to the earth.

Now that being said I still stand by my theory for Nirn. The shadows do fit into the shadow of a sphere because with the distances of the moons from nirn being different the light hits them differently. Nirn would either have to be farther from the sun and or bigger than earth though and it's moons would be closer to Nirn than our moon is close to us.

what happens if we see this same thing while the sun is out?

Makes the most sense, really. They also seem to be closer anyways. Unless they are just some really [censored] big moons.

Then it's deffinitly a bug. I was just trying to justify it for my own playsake and to proove that it could be possible. That being said the bigger bug(lore breaking) would be that we can't see the stars behind the moons. But it's been in Morrowind and Oblivion aswell so maybe it's not a bug :/

I noticed you did not link wikipedia this time when talking about the dark side of the moon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_side_of_the_Moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon

How can we see it from Earth if it is permanently facing away from us as you yourself said?

Razor, I'd like to see your "physics" regarding this matter...no one is debating that light travels in a straight line, but the moons clearly are not the same size, distance or longitude / latitude from Nirn and therefore have differing shadows cast by Nirn.

It's simple, you guys are just refusing to be proven wrong by simple logic.

If the moons were in a direct line from the sun with the smaller poking above the bigger a bit going off the angle of the light, it would look something like this anyway.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a145/Valheru007/NirnMoonsDodge.jpg

The bigger would shadow the smaller.

Cheers,

Craig