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Real sky phenomenon or clever fake?
This stunning but bogus "photo" is getting passed around the internet:
http://www.pbase.com/inaturalist/image/107009000
The claim has no doubt taken in thousands and produced many exclamations of surprise and wonder, yet it is certainly a Photoshopped composite.
Please check out the text refuting the claim and share your thoughts. How many more ways can you find to prove that it's fake? Can you find anything to support the claim of authenticity?
Mihailo thinks the mountains look fake. OK, maybe -- I also think the light gradient in the sky is unrealistic, but let's assume the sunset/sunrise shot is real. I'm looking for scientific impossibilities.
Actually, there's nothing wrong with the moon per se -- imagine the mountains are very far and you use a tele lens -- you definitely could get the moon/mountain aspect. What's clearly impossible are 1) the ratio of the sun/moon diameters, and 2) the angle of the ecliptic. Take away either the sun or the moon and you have a possible, if not completely realistic, shot.
Dave makes two good points. I thought the moon's dark side should show some earthshine, but under some conditions it could appear black -- in any case it would not be the exact same color and shade as the sky behind it. And yes, the mountains are way too well lit on this side -- I had overlooked that. Mercury, on the other hand, is visible only when near maximum elongation in the direction opposite the horizon, ie, "above" the sun here, never when it's near conjunction, opposition or elongation on the horizon side of the sun, so its omission here is not a fatal flaw.
Why ask the question? Good question. Answer: to get the input of others who might know more than I do, to find more evidence and points of discussion (that has already happened), and to reveal errors in my take on this hoax (has not yet happened).
Is the Moon Illusion photographable? Yes and no. Actually, the illusion can appear in all its dramatic glory in a photo: however, if the photographer waits six hours until the moon is high in the sky and takes another shot with the same lens, the illusion will not appear, yet the diameter of the moon on the negatives will be exactly the same. This proves beyond doubt that the effect is purely an illusion. I should add that the poorly understood Moon Illusion is a secondary effect of something called the Sky Illusion, whereby the sky appears to and upward-gazing observer to be highly flattened, NOT a hemisphere, but I didn't mean to get into that here.
6 Answers
- ArkaliusLv 51 decade agoFavorite Answer
The text describes the moon illusion. The first thing to remember about the moon illusion is that it's a trick of the mind. Our brain makes us think the moon is bigger. There is no physical phenomenon that makes it appear bigger (in fact atmospheric lensing at that low angle would actually make it slightly smaller). So, the illusion effect cannot be photographed. So right there you know it must be fake. Nothing could make the moon appear that large.
Second, at the north pole, a thin crescent moon would appear to be at the left or right of the sun, not directly above it. It is true the moon can pass above or below the sun in orbit but at those points it is far too close to the sun to be visible. The atmospheric glare would outshine the tiny crescent it would show.
Someone already mentioned the absence of earthshine on the moon. At that slim phase, you should easily see the dark side of the moon lit up by light reflected by the Earth. This photo does not show that.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
It is a fake. Look at the dark portion of the Moon and you can see the sky right there the same as the sky that sits around the moon. Normally this dark portion of the Moon would not look light that. Also this side of the mountains should appear much darker as the Sun is shining from the far side of these mountains. Also i do not see the planet Mercury which should appear brightly just at sunset or sunrise due to its proximity to the Sun.
- 1 decade ago
Fake.
I don't need to read anything to know. Just look at the mountains, they look very poorly rendered. And I've played plenty of video games to know that water is made by a computer, and not nature.
- StuLv 41 decade ago
The moon has never ever looked that big..... and from the position of the sun you shouldn't be able to see the moon at all..
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- krystinaLv 41 decade ago
It's obviously a fake.
But if this were possible, and I were to see it.
I think I would die of a heart attack.
Fake or not, Its beautiful. and would be an amazing site from earth.
- ?Lv 71 decade ago
The text on YOUR link DEBUNKS THE PHOTO!
WHY ARE YOU EVEN ASKING THIS QUESTION?!?!?
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