APOD: The ISS and a Colorful Moon (2015 Jul 31)

[APOD Robot]

The ISS and a Colorful Moon

Explanation: Tonight's Full Moon, the second Full Moon in July, could be called a blue moon according to modern folklore. But this sharp and detailed mosaic, recorded with telescope and digital camera just before July's first Full Moon, actually does show a colorful lunar surface. The colors have been enhanced in the processed image but are real nonetheless, corresponding to real differences in the chemical makeup of the lunar surface. Also easy to see especially when the Moon is near full phase, bright rays from 85 kilometer wide Tycho crater at the upper right extend far across the lunar surface. Against the southern lunar highlands above and right of Tycho is an amazingly detailed silhouette of the International Space Station. Seen from Byron Bay, NSW Australia on June 30, the ISS lunar transit lasted about 1/3 of a second, captured with a fast shutter speed in burst mode.

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[Nitpicker]

Magnificent image.

[Boomer12k]

Amazing...

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[Animal of Stone]

Thank you for a beautiful image.The clear winter skies of 2015 in Australia have been a revelation, especially the dance between Venus and Jupiter.

[Coil_Smoke]

Someone once said " It Has A Stark Beauty All It's Own " But that was like way back in the sixties, man...

[What?]

What?? ISIS has taken over the moon? Or just propaganda?

[LocalColor]

Great photo, lots of detail.

[MarkBour]

Beautiful image. You can almost make out the hole where they dug up that large black domino.

[starsurfer]

The moon this week has appeared yellow to me from my cloudy location in the UK.

[Jim Armstrong]

Another great APOD!
i wonder if there is a greater visible sign of cataclysm in the solar system than the Tycho impact.

[ta152h0]

is it not " burst mode " the same as " movie frame " ?

[Chris Peterson]

is it not " burst mode " the same as " movie frame " ?

No. In burst mode, the camera captures ordinary still frames at several per second (for a limited time- something like 25 raw frames at 7 frames per second before it has to stop and write to the memory card). Because these are normal frames, you get the full resolution of the sensor, raw data, and full control over exposure time. Video is lower resolution, lower dynamic range, has lossy compression, and doesn't allow you to control the exposure time (or not fully).

[ta152h0]

your answers always inspire more questions. Is that how NH captured the fleeting visit to Pluto ? My dad liked to answer questions with math problems. the lead eng at the Big Kite Kompany also liked to do that ( at what speed and angle do rudders start to be effective, for example )

[C0ppert0p]

There is a greenish/purple/red mottled appearance to the image that looks more like a processing effect than it does "natural color". The effect is more noticeable in the darker areas on the moon. It may be my monitor, so I'll reserve judgment. I see this sort of feature in over-processed Photoshop images

[Chris Peterson]

There is a greenish/purple/red mottled appearance to the image that looks more like a processing effect than it does "natural color". The effect is more noticeable in the darker areas on the moon. It may be my monitor, so I'll reserve judgment. I see this sort of feature in over-processed Photoshop images

Certainly, the large boost in saturation required to bring out the natural color also creates color noise. There's no getting around that. Most processing produces artifacts. In this case, the artifacts are minor compared with the value of the processing. You simply can't trust the color at the pixel level. That doesn't mean it isn't showing useful information regionally.

[Coil_Smoke]

Someone once said " It Has A Stark Beauty All It's Own " But that was like way back in the sixties, man...

I have to follow up here. Because I am surprised no one else did. That 'Someone' was Neal Armstrong whilst walking on the moon ...
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/n ... lo-11.html

[MarkBour]

Another great APOD!
i wonder if there is a greater visible sign of cataclysm in the solar system than the Tycho impact.

Depends what you mean, I suppose. Some of the blasts on Mercury look worse to me. And then there's little Mimas, which, proportionately, shows perhaps one of the biggest splashes a body can exhibit. On the Earth itself, the Pacific Ocean basin might have been something very special indeed.

[ta152h0]

Ihink there is, between Mars and Jupiter

[Chris Peterson]

Ihink there is, between Mars and Jupiter

Collisions in the asteroid belt aren't all that common, and generally aren't all that cataclysmic. The belt itself isn't a sign of any cataclysm, either.

[spaceaman]

The picture of the moon on 2015 July 31 is really a beautiful picture. Thousands of impact craters can be seen clearly in this picture. I was wondering, however, do we ever take any pictures of the impacts as they happen? Surely some impacts must have been observed and photographed over time.

If not for the Earth’s atmosphere, the Earth would be impacted very often. The moon, of course, has no protection and should have many impacts in each month.

[Chris Peterson]

The picture of the moon on 2015 July 31 is really a beautiful picture. Thousands of impact craters can be seen clearly in this picture. I was wondering, however, do we ever take any pictures of the impacts as they happen? Surely some impacts must have been observed and photographed over time.

Hundreds of impacts have been recorded on video, which is easy to do during any meteor shower where half or more of the Moon is in shadow. At least one of these produced a crater large enough to be seen by the LRO.

LROMarch_17_Animation.serendipityThumb.gif (128.01 KiB) Viewed 8340 times

The size of debris striking the Moon these days is generally too small to produce any new craters likely to be visible from the Earth. Virtually all the impact craters we see on the Moon were produced during the Late Heavy Bombardment, some 4 billion years ago.