Cold Moonlight Tested with Real Controls — New Moon Data Says Otherwise

📊 FULL DATASET (Google Sheets):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Is moonlight cold?

There are countless videos claiming that moonlight cools objects, often using laser thermometers or FLIR cameras to show that ground in direct moonlight appears colder than ground in the shade. From this, people conclude that the Moon emits “cold light.”

But there is a major scientific problem with those conclusions: there are no proper controls, and the experiments are rarely repeated without the Moon present.

In this video, I test the “cold moonlight” claim using controlled, repeatable measurements during a new moon, when there is no moonlight in the sky at all.

I ran two identical temperature logging systems overnight:

One placed in open air, fully exposed to the sky

One placed under a gazebo, blocking the view of the sky

Both setups used the same equipment, the same layout, the same height off the ground, and logged temperature every five seconds using a BME280 sensor and a real-time clock. The only differences were sky exposure and nearby structures.

I also repeated this test on multiple moonless nights to confirm the results.

As the night progressed, both locations cooled, but the open air cooled faster, while the covered location stayed warmer. Over time, the temperature difference grew larger, exactly as predicted by basic radiative heat transfer.

This happened with no moonlight present at all.

A brief temperature spike occurred around midnight and was recorded by both sensors simultaneously. I do not know exactly what caused it. It did not rain, and I was not monitoring cloud cover or wind conditions. The fact that both sensors recorded the same change indicates an environmental shift, not a sensor error.

This experiment does not claim that gazebos or canopies create heat, and it does not claim that the Moon cools the ground. What it shows is something much simpler:

Structures like gazebos, trees, walls, and roofs change how heat is exchanged with the night sky. Open air loses heat faster because it radiates directly to the cold sky, while covered or sheltered areas lose heat more slowly due to nearby surfaces radiating energy back.

If you only test this during a full moon, it is easy to mistake this structural effect for something mystical about moonlight.

📊 All raw data from this experiment is publicly available here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Feel free to download it, graph it, and verify the results yourself.

This is why controls matter.
This is why repetition matters.
And this is why single observations are not evidence.

Test the claim. See for yourself.