I don't know Matt. Just 20 min after I took this, it was impossible to see the brightly lit sliver. Maybe dusk would be the same and perhaps someone knows the basis for this phenomenon.
As for politics, have we really lost our senses of humor? I was proposing an answer to the implied question: Where did the Moon go? Note the I thought Eric's follow on was funny too; arrested it get it? Stopped it in its tracks. Funny. Glad you liked it. The image. The humor... meh.
From what I understand the dark side getting dimly illuminated is from earth shine, when light reflects back from the earth to the dark side of the moon. It works best when it is cloudy on the daytime side of the earth.
And yes, the window of opportunity would be small and the moon probably very hard to find. But it
may be possible...
I don't mind the joke but also didn't find it especially funny. But hey, they can't all be zingers.