Million Miles Away, NASA's DSCOVR Spacecraft Shows the Moon Crossing the Face of the Earth

a reply to: NightFlight

I'm hardly a mathematician but if the moon is 27% smaller in width than the earth and 28% closer to where the image was taken from shouldn't that mean the moon should measure about 34-35% the size of the earth?

That doesn't mean that it's genuine just the correct size.

I've yet to hear a valid reason why photo's like this would be faked, what purpose would it serve?

For those who say it "looks fake", what should it look like if it was genuine? Be specific.

originally posted by: eluryh22
a reply to: putnam6

What’s the green ring following the curve on the right half of the moon?
I have no idea if photo is real or fake

Looks like chromatic aberration to me. Don't know why it should be there at all.
Sometimes real things can look fake.
I don't know about this, but it belongs to those images that look incredibly fake due to the seeming flatness of the Moon and the aberration.
I mean people believe anything they are told nowadays, see covid. They don't even need to try hard to covince them.

Looks like a bad photoshop, even if real. 🤷

originally posted by: GopiGrl
I want to believe but it looks so fake.

It's a Government test to see what percentage of the population is _______________.

a reply to: putnam6

The scales from the perspective of that camera make no sense to me, at all.

a reply to: Saint Exupery

The distances from the Moon to Earth should mean the Earth should be much smaller from that perspective. The camera would be much closer to the Moon than the Earth. I’d imagine it would look more like your avatar.

a reply to: Freeborn

It’s a much more complex equation. You’d need to know various factors including camera focal length etc.

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: Freeborn

It’s a much more complex equation. You’d need to know various factors including camera focal length etc.

I agree and though I am a complete novice, wouldn't there be some distortion if perhaps DSCVR was focusing on earth in particular which it is in most of the pictures in the gallery. So if I'm focusing on something far away and something slides into view in front of that object not only does it look closer than it is, it is usually a tad bit more blurry than what you were originally focusing on.

Why doesn't this apply here

for any of the doubting Debbie Downers out there here are pics taken from DSCVR during the wildfires in September 2020 again why fake all these images? What's the point? What's the payoff?

It sounds suspiciously like flat earther territory, or are the MIB doctoring the pics because the Artrillian battle cruisers are hiding behind earth until we return Orion's Belt?

Actually, if the distance between the camera and the objects, and the distance between the two objects does not change significantly, then the camera focal length is not part of this calculation. A long focal length can make objects appear flatter (as Hecate666 noted) and also seems to compress the distance between foreground and background objects. We can clearly see this in the image: The distance between the Earth & Moon is ~30x the diameter of the Earth, yet the Moon appears right in front of Earth.

Independent of Freeborn, I looked-up the Earth & Moon sizes and distance (including perigee and apogee). I also found that the DSCOVR satellite is not "a million miles" away - It's actually orbiting L1 in a Lissajous orbit ~930,000 miles from Earth (+/- ~25,000 miles).

I did the math from scratch, and my results matched Freeborn: The Moon's disk should appear ~34% - 35% the size of Earth. Interestingly, when I downloaded the image and measured the width in pixels of each disk, I found the Moon appeared ~36.7% of the size of the Earth, so contrary to your expectations, the lunar disk appears slightly larger than calculations would suggest. The difference could be due to errors in my measurements, or the satellite may have been closer than average when the photo was taken.

Hope this helps.


P.S. Feel free to do the math yourself and post your results here.

a reply to: HUBE007

There are thousands of photos of Earth, and moon, showing great detail, taken by multiple countries. Not one has ever been shown to be fake or contradicted what would be seen. The lack of spaceships is not because they have been hidden.

As for the size of the moon, it's back of the envelope stuff, but I did this in Celestia:

a reply to: igloo

Your lack of faith doesn't invalidate them.

There are composite images where multiple photographs comprising a small part of a scene are combined to make a single view, such as images of Earth made from low Earth orbit satellites.

There are composite images where different channels (eg red blue green) are combined to make a single image.

Then there are composites where one satellite sensor doesn't record all the data we need to make a full image, eg where an existing base image is combined with water vapour data to make a clouded globe.

Then there just plain old photographs, of which there are many.

Space photographs aren't just pretty pictures, they are data. Other things may be added to help make the data make more sense. That is not the same as fake.

Have some info on how satellites work, intended to debunk claims that Earth images are fake.

a reply to: OneBigMonkeyToo

You're right, using Celestia i get the same result from around 1,000,000 miles when overlaying the moon and Earth.

Sorry for resolution but from that distance it's the best i could do.

a reply to: putnam6
You do realize the japanese footage you posted is a 3d model reconstructed from the data of their supposed lunar orbiter correct? Surely you aren't that stupid right?

a reply to: Grenade

Yeah, I know I sort of over-simplified the equation, but it still gives a rough ballpark estimate.

I'm sure the more knowledgeable amongst us will be able to determine exactly how far away from earth the image was taken, how refraction and/or reflection may alter things and all other relevant data and variables to give exact measurements of both the earth and moon.

But as I said before; no-one has ever given me a reasonable explanation as to why such images would be faked it the first place?

a reply to: Freeborn

Money, it's cheaper and safer to fake space rather than go there. I have no doubt NASA fake some things, that doesn't make me a flat earther or anything of the sort.

The photo in question is from 2016.
million mile photo

Just to throw fuel on the fire:

earth from the moon

Here is a photo of a Chinese craft taking a moon/earth shot:
572k miles distant Chinese shot

Another further out:
voyager 7million miles

a reply to: oddscreenname

The terminator "line" in the voyager shot is all over the place.

a reply to: Grenade

But with the degree of scrutiny everything NASA publishes comes under surely they would know that faking something like this image would be found out.
And what possible benefit would it be to NASA?
Its an image of the moon traversing earth, nothing earth shatteringly new, nothing to justify further budget increases etc.
Its just a cool looking photo, that's it.
It would be a pointless exercise to fake it.

And all those foreign space agencies would bust a gut to publicly humiliate NASA.

a reply to: Freeborn

I never said this image was fake, i just had a hard time digesting the scales and perspective.

I'm now actually defending the image after performing my own research and using a computer model.

a reply to: Freeborn

Is it a photo of the earth and the moon? Yes.
Is it in true original form? No.
Why is it not in true original form? ...
What is not shown in the original? ...
Would anyone accept a manipulated photo of any other occurrence/location as legitimate? ...