A Sunset on Pluto

BAFact math: how big does the Sun look from Pluto?

...So from Pluto, the Sun would look like a star — that is, a point of light — albeit an intensely bright one. Looking at it would certainly be painful, and probably make your eyes tear up.

blogs.discovermagazine.com...

So why does the image from Pluto not show just 1 very intense pixel for the Sun?

Cool... That is simply awesome.

Slightly scary, for me, though. I don't know why. I mean, not the picture itself, but to standing on an alien planet... And more to the point, the journey through void or space to get there... If only I had the TARDIS...

But about the sunrise/sunset, this is simply beautiful. Slightly sad too that the Sun will look so small... And no moonlight..

a reply to: swanne

I had 0.014 a few posts before that.

a reply to: GaryN

Is it in the field of view

originally posted by: wmd_2008
a reply to: GaryN

Is it in the field of view

Huh? They took a picture of it, how could it not be in the field of view?? I can't find the individual images they used for the 'video' though.

www.space.com...

a reply to: GaryN

We are all commenting on the image in the OP which does not seem to show the Sun

originally posted by: GaryN

originally posted by: wmd_2008
a reply to: GaryN

Is it in the field of view

Huh? They took a picture of it, how could it not be in the field of view?? I can't find the individual images they used for the 'video' though.

www.space.com...

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to say.

The information about the image in the OP is that is is a picture of sunlight shining through Pluto's atmosphere and falling upon Pluto. The Sun itself does not need to be in the image for the sunlight to be in the image.

Similarly, I can look outside and see sunlight filtering through Earth's atmosphere and falling upon Earth's surface without having the Sun itself in my field of view....

...or are you trying to say something else?

originally posted by: wmd_2008
a reply to: GaryN

We are all commenting on the image in the OP which does not seem to show the Sun

Oh I see, the OPs image was taken with the RALPH instrument, looking back after it had passed Pluto, which means the Sun is not behind Pluto. I wondered how there was a terminator visible if the Sun was behind Pluto.

Ralph consists of three panchromatic (black-and-white) and four color imagers inside its Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), as well as an infrared compositional mapping spectrometer called the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA).

Four colour imagers, but do they mean in the visible band?

originally posted by: GaryN

originally posted by: wmd_2008
a reply to: GaryN

We are all commenting on the image in the OP which does not seem to show the Sun

Oh I see, the OPs image was taken with the RALPH instrument, looking back after it had passed Pluto, which means the Sun is not behind Pluto. I wondered how there was a terminator visible if the Sun was behind Pluto.

Ralph consists of three panchromatic (black-and-white) and four color imagers inside its Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), as well as an infrared compositional mapping spectrometer called the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA).

Four colour imagers, but do they mean in the visible band?

It's not hard to locate the information GaryN, NASA is more open than NASA conspiracy nuts claim.

MVIC is composed of 7 independent CCD arrays on a single substrate.It uses two of its large format (5024x32 pixel)CCD arrays, operated in time delay integration (TDI) mode, to provide panchromatic (400 to 975 nm) images. Four additional 5024x32 CCDs, combined with the appropriate filters and also operated in TDI mode, provide the capability of mapping in blue (400-550 nm), red (540-700 nm), near IR (780 – 975 nm) and narrow band methane (860 – 910) nm)channels.TDI operates by synchronizing the parallel transfer rate of each of the CCDs thirty-two 5024 pixel wide rows to the relative motion of the image across the detector’s surface.In this way, very large format images are obtained as the spacecraft scans the FOV rapidly across the surface.

More info here on Ralph

originally posted by: GaryN

Oh I see, the OPs image was taken with the RALPH instrument, looking back after it had passed Pluto, which means the Sun is not behind Pluto. I wondered how there was a terminator visible if the Sun was behind Pluto.

Pluto was between the Sun and the camera. Technically, the Sun is thus behind Pluto, relative to the camera.

I believe you might be confusing the general direction "behind Pluto" with "eclipsed by Pluto".