APOD: Earthset from Orion (2022 Nov 23)

[APOD Robot]

Earthset from Orion

Explanation: Eight billion people are about to disappear in this snapshot from space. Taken on November 21, the sixth day of the Artemis 1 mission, their home world is setting behind the Moon's bright edge as viewed by an external camera on the outbound Orion spacecraft. The Orion was headed for a powered flyby that took it to within 130 kilometers of the lunar surface. Velocity gained in the flyby maneuver will be used to reach a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That orbit is considered distant because it's another 92,000 kilometers beyond the Moon, and retrograde because the spacecraft will orbit in the opposite direction of the Moon's orbit around planet Earth. Orion will enter its distant retrograde orbit on Friday, November 25. Swinging around the Moon, Orion will reach a maximum distance (just over 400,000 kilometers) from Earth on Monday November 28 exceeding a record set by Apollo 13 for most distant spacecraft designed for human space exploration.

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[VictorBorun]

Here Moon feels naturally coloured. Conversions from black-and-white historic snapshots felt less natural.

To see why, I strengthened the contrast of the moonscape part to maximum. Real colours are less predictable:

colourful moon.jpg (37.42 KiB) Viewed 3163 times

[Redbone]

Is the apparent bulge of the Earth in this APOD real or an artifact of the picture?

[orin stepanek]

I loved this photo from Orion! I loved the Apollo13 video clip also!

[ignacio_db]

Why does the moon look so featureless and kind of dark?

[bystander]

Is the apparent bulge of the Earth in this APOD real or an artifact of the picture?

It's not a "Full Earth". The Sun is obviously down and to the left.

[De58te]

Why does the moon look so featureless and kind of dark?

Since we see the planet Earth way behind the Moon and since the Moon always presents the same face to the Earth because of tidal locking, what you are seeing is the "dark side of the Moon". It is actually more featureless because there are no dark seas, except for a couple rather small ones.

[De58te]

This reminds me of the Apollo 8 photograph of the Earth where somebody said (I believe it was Carl Sagan) Everybody who was ever born and died or is alive today .. is in this photograph.. except for 3 men .. who are behind the camera! Well in this case since the spaceship is unmanned .. everybody who is alive or has died.. except for a handful of famous corpses who were buried in space .. is captured in this photograph!

[Rudedog]

Great picture? Why is the moon so blurry? What are you hiding from us?

[bystander]

There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark. The only thing that makes it look light is the sun.

Eclipse, Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd

[ignacio_db]

Why does the moon look so featureless and kind of dark?

Since we see the planet Earth way behind the Moon and since the Moon always presents the same face to the Earth because of tidal locking, what you are seeing is the "dark side of the Moon". It is actually more featureless because there are no dark seas, except for a couple rather small ones.

I understand we see the far side of the moon in this picture. But such side has an even more dense field of craters than the near side, which are not seen in this image. As if the contrast of that portion of the image has been washed out in processing, or something to do with the sensor saturating due to the brightness that the moon should have when illuminated by the sun.

I still don't get it.

[heehaw]

I am an astronomer! We astronomers are VERY fortunate that that damned Moon is SO dark (non-reflective). Even so, it makes many nights not useable for REAL astronomy!

[Sa Ji Tario]

Is the apparent bulge of the Earth in this APOD real or an artifact of the picture?

It's not a "Full Earth". The Sun is obviously down and to the left.

In this image the Sun is above and to the right, in addition to a little "behind" the Earth, that is why there is no illumination in that part of the Moon

[Sa Ji Tario]

Is the apparent bulge of the Earth in this APOD real or an artifact of the picture?

It's not a "Full Earth". The Sun is obviously down and to the left.

In this image the Sun is above and to the right, in addition to a little "behind" the Earth, that is why there is no illumination in that part of the Moon

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