…and with it the terrain. There’s no challenge in night flights. The red glare on the horizon is a nuisance.
Change my mind.
On most other issues: I really spend more time on MSFS than I should. That’s a compliment 
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That lighting depends a huge amount on your graphical settings. Did you ever calibrate your display?
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Use the Weather settings. Put up some clouds, you won’t get the moonlight.
It has been to bright since the beginning but…right now we are still to close to full moon try it with no moon.
It’s certainly brighter with a full moon than with no moon at all, I’m unsure as to whether it’s realistic or not.
Also to mention in some remote parts of the world the Milky Way can cause a shadow, a shame we don’t have this depicted very well in the night sky.
Waxing Gibbous
The glow on the horizon is very annoying I agree. It’s there no matter what.
Moon too big not right size ect Milky Way not right Sun too sunny Big Dipper has no handle civil twilight is wrong and where is that North Star? I need to get a fix lol
Have you set your vid card to 10 or 12 bit color it makes a huge difference. At 12 bit all those glaring things you the sun moon etc go away an look alot better.
I started MSFS during the last new moon. It was near impossible to taxi in the Cessna 152. I think I had 4 feet of visibility with both the taxi lights and landing lights on. I know it’s not actually that dark at the actual airport.
Yes the moon is definitely too bright on a calibrated display and HDR. You can see everything on the ground with a full moon.
Also there is the eye adaptation feature but with a fully lit cockpit you can still see the same outside as with a dark cockpit.
Interesting topic. I almost never fly at night because I am IFR-certified only, but that sounds interesting and I will check this out tonight how the moon looks like and this strange purple-ish glow on the horizon I have seen on some screenshots really never goes away - even on midnight during wintertime when it should be absolutely pitch-black outside during new moon.
Edit:
I have tested it and during full moon the nightly illumination looks perfectly correct, and during new moon nights it´s pitch black.
Almost full moon:
New moon: Everything is absolute dark.
You can choose any date to fly on that you want, and thus get any moon phase you want. Not sure why it would be “too close” to a full moon to try flying without one?
I’m with Gamingcat; moon illumination looks great. IRL, flying with a full moon is almost like flying in daylight. Conversely, no moon is much darker than other sims depict night. MSFS does a good job here too. DCS is my favorite sim depiction of a moonless night, because they get it exactly right - it’s just black. No glow, no horizon, no ocean below you… just black.
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I’m not being sarcastic or demeaning so please no one take offense, but for those folks saying the moon is too bright, do you live in a populated area? Have you been in the middle of nowhere and experienced the sky and moon light? Light pollution is so prevalent, there are generations of people who don’t know what it looks like! I’ve met many! As mentioned above, you can easily read a novel or count the pebbles by your feet, on a clear night w/ full moon. The sky is, horizon to horizon spots of light and the milky way is awe-inspiring.
If any thing, the stars are too dim.
Some HDR may over due the moon, as it can with other things, but that’s a different topic.
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I don’t know how much you fly but from a real aircraft at cruise altitude it’s pitch dark outside regardless the moon phase. Even with the lights out.
And even if you could see something outside when you turn the flood lights on in the cockpit you would see even less.
Uh, no it’s not? On a full moon night, there’s a very visible horizon. Clouds and the ground are very well illuminated. In a small airplane or an airliner, you can easily see the panel even with the interior lights off. I’ve used a sun visor for the moon before in a 737… at jet cruise altitudes, you’re above most of the atmosphere and the moon is very bright indeed.
Airline folks have a habit of turning on all cockpit floods at night, and if you do that, sure it’s dark outside. But once you turn them off, say for descent / landing… a full moon is pretty darn bright.
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The full moon is even so bright that one can switch off the headlights of the car and continue driving with perfect night vision. But this is not recommended 
only the USS Sea Shadow is stealthy driving without navigation lights.
When going for a walk during full moon nights the moon is even casting a clearly visible shadow of the body and the scenery is so bright that it is possible to take pictures at night with ISO1000.
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I think there is some improvement to be made in the way the atmosphere is displayed. Every sunset or sunrise the sky turns orange and red while this is definitely not always the case, certainly not when it is overcast. At night you can see the entire milky way when its clear, I have never seen it that way in real life. The moon brightness is fine I think.
I have flown a lot during the night. When I was an instructor I used to do VFR night instruction on a single engine piston aircraft. Flying with full moon can make a night flight look like day to the dark adapted eye (well almost). The moon casts shadows on the ground, you can easily see surface features, obstacles etc. It makes all the difference when having to perform an emergency landing at night.
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