If an object is reflecting like a mirror, then it depends on too many particulars…

If an object is reflecting like the moon, then it depends (like the mirror ‘example’) of the position of the light source. 

See here, where the Sun is behind the observer, giving a full Moon.  Pretty uniform illumination: 
http://i.space.com/images/i/000/005/980/i02/moon-watching-night-100916-02.jpg?1294154541

And here, where the Sun is to the side of the observer, giving a half-moon.  Note that the surface illuminated at a shallow angle is darker.
http://ut-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/moon.0001.jpg

When you’re looking at the Moon, you’re looking at a sunlit object – much like looking at a sunlit object here on terra firma.  When you photograph the Moon, you must use an exposure time that’s the same as taking a picture of a friend who’s sunlit.  Really.

For light sources which are diffuse, like the Sun, it’s kinda like the light given off by the full Moon, but for the Sun, it’s a little different.
See here:
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/706436main_20121114-304-193Blend_M6-orig_full.jpg

The very thin rim/edge of the Sun is brighter, but that’s the corona.  And it’s a view through a thicker slice of the corona right near the surface – giving more photons coming .

Note, the brightness of the Sun in this photograph seems uniform.  I’ll have to try some photographs of the Sun myself, then de-focus them slightly to confuse the surface features, to see if the brightness is uniform.

This moment in pedantry brought to you by I’m trying to avoid finishing writing that paper.

as above so below! http://globalgoodgroup.com/blog/2012/05/09/all-about-the-human-egg/

Alan follows in the footsteps of several other solar astronomers and craftspeople in Buffalo: 

Walter Semerau, who built (by hand!) a high resolution spectroheliograph.  It was squeezed next his washing machine — and the solar tower in his backyard was on stilts alongside the clothesline.

Alan Gee, built (again, by hand!) an 8-angstrom prominence hydrogen filter – an optical filter created by grinding and polishing blocks of quartz (Before the advent of modern evaporated optical filters)

Ernst Both, the curator of astronomy at the Buffalo Museum of Science, who created a solar observatory (with spectrograph and monochrometer) located in Buffalo’s inner-city. 

I’m honored and humbled to have met each of these men; I studied under Ernst Both for many years. 

Later, when working at Kitt Peak National Observatory, I was struck by how much these people had accomplished in building instruments and bringing the excitement of astronomy to the community. 

he says that it’s not possible to capture the faint stuff from the city, which is not strictly true. with the use of narrowband filters you can image all sorts of emission nebulae. it’s challenging but not impossible.