[KineticLensman]

It’s far side, not dark side. The moon doesn’t have a dark side anymore than the earth does

[perilunar]

Well the point is it needs to be both. The telescope needs to be on the far side to shield it from Earth, and the dark side to shield it from the Sun. But yes, it's only on the dark side 50% of the time.

[wumms]

NASA uses "dark side" (meaning far side, not night side) when facing the public [0]:

> A series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the Moon that is not visible from Earth.

> The far side of the Moon was first observed in 1959

[0] https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/the-dark-si...

[KineticLensman]

> the fully illuminated “dark side”

Personally, I don't find the phrase 'fully illuminated “dark side”' to be a convincing alternative to the physically more accurate term 'far side'. Of course NASA has only just emerged from the Earth's dark side as I write this (UK here, mid-morning), so I'm not expecting an immediate response from them.

And yes, I do know that 'side' is itself not entirely accurate because of libration [0] but that's a different hill to die on.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration#Lunar_libration

[rbanffy]

> NASA uses "dark side" (meaning far side, not night side) when facing the public [0]:

That's not helpful, at all.

[8bitsrule]

For 14 days a month, it's the dark side. That's the whole idea. Astronomy 101.