 Greetings and welcome to the Introduction to Astronomy. In today's misconception in astronomy, we are going to talk about the dark side of the moon and what that actually means. So, is there a dark side to the moon? Well, there's a split answer here, yes and no. Technically, half of the moon is illuminated, so half of it is always illuminated and half is dark. So there is always a dark side to the moon. However, these will change over the moon's orbit. There is no permanent dark side to the moon. So, perhaps a better terminology would be the far side of the moon. And we can see that in the orbital diagrams here. The moon rotates just as fast as it spins on its axis. So that means that one side of the moon is always away from Earth. It is turning just at exactly the right pace to keep this point whatever is located at this position right here is always in that same position no matter where the moon is in its orbit. And we note that when we look at the moon that we always see the same features. Now, if the moon did not rotate, we would see things a little differently and we would actually be able to see the entire sides of the moon. Here we see that same location would here be pointing toward Earth but would in half an orbit later would be pushing on the other side of the moon and we would not be able to see it. So that would be the case if the moon were not rotating. But in either case, we do not have any permanent dark side to the moon. When we look at the moon, we always see the same features. So no matter when you look at the moon, you see this same kind of structure, this same pattern. And if you see only a portion of the moon illuminated, you will still see just this half maybe, or just this half depending on when you're looking at it. But you will never see the other side of the moon. The far side of the moon was not visible until the late 1950s when we flew around the moon to be able to see the other side. So there is no dark side to the moon, at least not in a permanent sense, but there is a far side to the moon that can never be seen from Earth. So summarizing again here, we do not have a permanent dark side to the moon. Half is illuminated and half is dark, but that half changes over the course of the moon's orbit. However, we do always see the same face of the moon, meaning that there is a permanent far side to the moon. So that concludes this misconception on the dark side of the moon. We'll be back again next week for another misconception in astronomy. So until then, have a great day, everyone, and I will see you in class.