From reader Mac:
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I have to ask the question: Why is the moon dark and the earth so lit up? The lighting looks all wrong with this picture.
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MrF says:
That is a very interesting question. All I can say is that the albedo (reflectivity) of the Moon is 0.12, while the albedo of the Earth is two and a half times that at about 0.30. So the earth would in fact look brighter. But the Moon does seem unexpectedly dark in that picture.

From reader Phil:
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Mr.Fusion: no reflection on you. That is not the picture of the far side of the moon that I once saw. The far side looks rather grotest, like someone punched a big hole in it. No wonder we never get to see more pictures of it.

Phil.

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MrF says:
Below is an image of both sides of the Moon, near and far. The far image does appear to me to match the one in the previous post. In the Earth-Moon image, I believe the Moon is somewhat out of focus, because it is about 760,000 miles away, and the Earth is a million miles away. You would think it wouldn't make much difference, but that image is from a specially designed high performance weather camera in the satellite, designed to give high definition images of the Earth only. I notice there is a color fringe on the right side of the Moon against the Earth, further indicating the camera is not optimized for objects at that distance.

Near and far side of Moon:

Click on image for full size: