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Credit & Copyright: Jimmy Westlake
(Colorado Mountain College)
Explanation:
Where's the Moon?
Somewhere in this image, the Earth's Moon is hiding.
The entire Moon is visible, in its completely full phase,
in plain sight.
Even the photographer's keen eye couldn't find it even though he knew exactly where
to look -- only the
long exposure of his camera picked it up -- barely.
Although by now you might be congratulating yourself on finding it, why was it so difficult to see?
For one reason, this photograph was taken during a
total lunar eclipse, when the Earth's
shadow made
the Moon much dimmer than a normal full Moon.
For another, the image, taken in
Colorado,
USA,
was captured just before sunrise.
With the Moon
on the exact opposite side of the sky from the Sun,
this meant that the Sun was just below the horizon, but still
slightly illuminating
the sky.
Last, as the
Moon was only about two degrees above the horizon, the
large volume of air between the camera and the horizon scattered a lot of light
away from the
background Moon.
Twelve minutes after this image was acquired in 2012,
the Sun peeked over the horizon and the Moon set.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.