Starship Asterisk*

Has anyone else noticed the large, clear, prominent letter "S" stamped on our moon? It's clearly visible in two of the three images in the apod for 3 September. Guess that would be on the side facing away from earth? Hmmmm . . . the speculative mind could have a lot of fun with this! Of course, even though my moniker is "Smitty," I'm not taking responsibility for it. I have an alibi. I wasn't anywhere near the moon when it happened. Honest!.

Ooooops! Please make that "visible in two out of the four images"! In addition to not having been near the moon that day I also wasn't near a math class. I don't feel so bad, however, knowing that four out of every three people are confused by fractions.

smitty wrote:Has anyone else noticed the large, clear, prominent letter "S" stamped on our moon? It's clearly visible in two of the three images in the apod for 3 September. Guess that would be on the side facing away from earth? Hmmmm . . . the speculative mind could have a lot of fun with this! Of course, even though my moniker is "Smitty," I'm not taking responsibility for it. I have an alibi. I wasn't anywhere near the moon when it happened. Honest!.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080903.html

You're right smitty... plain as the nose on my face. And quite a nicely structured "S" at that.

I expect it may be some sort of catalog labeling for the advanced alien race that is monitoring our progress on earth.

And it does make one wonder what the "S" might stand for... "Silly" earthlings perhaps... dancing all around and such...???

smitty wrote:Ooooops! Please make that "visible in two out of the four images"! In addition to not having been near the moon that day I also wasn't near a math class. I don't feel so bad, however, knowing that four out of every three people are confused by fractions.

Is that 'S' you see on the Moon or on the Earth? I 'm seeing what looks like an 'S' on the Earth on two of the photos.

Orin

orin stepanek wrote:Is that 'S' you see on the Moon or on the Earth? I 'm seeing what looks like an 'S' on the Earth on two of the photos.

Moon.... Top right and bottom left photos.

bystander wrote:

orin stepanek wrote:Is that 'S' you see on the Moon or on the Earth? I 'm seeing what looks like an 'S' on the Earth on two of the photos.

Moon.... Top right and bottom left photos.

OK! I had to look a little harder. My eyes aren't so good anymore.
Orin

I had mentioned that due to the moon's orbital velocity of ~ 1 km/s
that a lidar beam bouncing off of a lunar retroreflector would be sent
back where it came from in the moon's frame of reference but not in
the earth's frame of reference such that the center of the return beam
would end up centered 2.5km. east of the lidar observatory.

However, as apparent in http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080903.html ,
the earth is also rotating in the same eastward direction as the
moon at about 0.4 km/s such that the center of the return beam
ends up centered only 1.5km. east of the lidar observatory.

Since the return beam is much wider than 1.5km. this is not a problem.

emc wrote:
I expect it may be some sort of catalog labeling for the advanced alien race that is monitoring our progress on earth.

Another friend suggested perhaps it was done by Superman during his rebellious, teenage years. Perhaps his version of carving his initials into a tree trunk? Super vandalism?

Btw, I can produce credit card receipts which pretty much prove that I was at Starbucks when this act of vandalism was done. In fact, that would also apply to when just about anything was done, come to think of it.

What?
On those pics the Moon is a featureless brown orb.

JOhn

Is the "S" in reference, the lighter toned pattern that "S" curves around a couple of dark regions?

I think the craters are causing it. With the moon so dark it is really hard to tell. If you look hard enough you can see what looks almost like an S; look harder and you can almost see a figure 8. The greenish S on the Earth is a lot easier to see.
Orin

smitty wrote:

emc wrote:
I expect it may be some sort of catalog labeling for the advanced alien race that is monitoring our progress on earth.

Another friend suggested perhaps it was done by Superman during his rebellious, teenage years. Perhaps his version of carving his initials into a tree trunk? Super vandalism?

Btw, I can produce credit card receipts which pretty much prove that I was at Starbucks when this act of vandalism was done. In fact, that would also apply to when just about anything was done, come to think of it.

Hi smitty,

Your persistent denial is incriminating. You might want to accept blame in some satirical fashion in order to decrease the suspicion your denials have created... you might try something like... "Yeah, I'm pretty proud of getting that "S" shaped just right... wasn't easy you know... had to build my own spaceship which wasn't a tiny task in itself!"

Your Asterisk friend,
MrEd

emc wrote:Hi smitty,

Your persistent denial is incriminating...

Yea, and he keeps saying he was at 'S'tarbucks.

bystander wrote:

emc wrote:Hi smitty,

Your persistent denial is incriminating...

Yea, and he keeps saying he was at 'S'tarbucks.

Yeah, you’re right bystander… come to think of it, his partiality to the frequent use of “S” is further incrimination isn’t it… sure seems like a simple open and shut case seeing smitty’s “S”s showing up in so many words… they say every criminal has a subconscious desire show off their skills.

Why is the "right" half of the moon not bright?

Ronaldo wrote:Why is the "right" half of the moon not bright?

Hi Ronaldo,

The image http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080903.html is composed in infrared.

Welcome to Asterisk!

Ed

BTW (by the way) - There is a thread on this APOD called "S" On the Moon!... it is a bit zany... here is the link http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... hp?t=14424

Thanks - both for the reply and the welcome.

That explanation did occur to me, but didn't know why they would use visible aspects of earth and not of the moon.



maybe "they" chose not to show more, hoping nobody would notice the "S" (previous posts)

Ronaldo wrote:Thanks - both for the reply and the welcome.

That explanation did occur to me, but didn't know why they would use visible aspects of earth and not of the moon.

There is a link "images of its home world" in the APOD caption that contains more info.

Ronaldo wrote:maybe "they" chose not to show more, hoping nobody would notice the "S" (previous posts)

Not sure what you mean.

If you consider that the Solar Illumination (light source) is located to the right of the image, then is becomes apparent that the dark half of the moon and Earth is due to the fact that the Night side of both orbs face away from the sun