APOD: Bright Sun and Crescent Earth (2009 Nov 30)

[orin stepanek]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091130.html

When I was a Kid; space flight was just an imaginative dream. Today we think nothing of another Shuttle flight. Awesome shots like this one and from Hubble are now commonplace. 8)

Orin

[neufer]

• -------------------------------------------
  . A Midsummer Night's Dream > Act V, scene I
  
  Moonshine: This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;--
  
  DEMETRIUS: He should have worn the horns on his head.
  
  THESEUS: He is no crescent, and his horns are
  . invisible within the circumference.
  
  Moonshine: This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;
  . Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.
  
  THESEUS: This is the greatest error of all the rest:
  . the man should be put into the lanthorn.
  . How is it else the man i' the moon?
  -------------------------------------------
  . Hamlet > Act I, scene III
  
  LAERTES: For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
  . In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
  . The inward service of the mind and soul
  . Grows wide withal.
  -------------------------------------------
  Crescent, n. [OE. cressent, cressaunt, crescent (in sense 1), OF. creissant increasing, F. croissant, p. pr. of crotre, OF. creistre, fr. L. crescere to increase, v. incho.; akin to creare to create. cf. Accrue, Increase, Crescendo.]
  
  1. The increasing moon; the moon in her first quarter, or when defined by a concave and a convex edge;
  
  . also, applied improperly to the old or decreasing [decrescent] moon in a like state.
  
  
  2. Anything having the shape of a crescent or new moon.
  
  3. A representation of the increasing moon, often used as an emblem or badge; as:
  (a) A symbol of Artemis, or Diana.
  (b) The ancient symbol of Byzantium or Constantinople. Hence:
  (c) The emblem of the Turkish Empire, adopted after the taking of Constantinople.
  • <<Crescent Tradition says that "Philip, the father of Alexander, meeting with great difficulties in the siege of Byzantium, set the workmen to undermine the walls, but a crescent moon discovered the design, which miscarried; consequently the Byzantines erected a statue to Diana, and the crescent became the symbol of the state.">>
  4. Any one of three orders of knighthood.
  
  5. (Her.) The emblem of the increasing moon with horns directed upward, when used in a coat of arms;
  -- often used as a mark of cadency to distinguish a second son and his descendants.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091123.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030621.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091110.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080126.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071023.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060618.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051205.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050329.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030309.html

[geckzilla]

Isn't it strange how brightly illuminated the solar panels are considering we are looking at the shadowed side of them? There must be a substantial reflection shining on them. Or they are more translucent than I thought.

[neufer]

Isn't it strange how brightly illuminated the solar panels are considering we are looking at the shadowed side of them? There must be a substantial reflection shining on them. Or they are more translucent than I thought.

Oh, dear!

They'll just have to go back to the studio and do another take.

[rstevenson]

Isn't it strange how brightly illuminated the solar panels are considering we are looking at the shadowed side of them? There must be a substantial reflection shining on them. Or they are more translucent than I thought.

This APOD might give you a better idea of what is illuminating them.

Rob

[geckzilla]

Yeah, I know they're attached to a fairly large structure, but still. The lighting is playing tricks on me. I've decided it's not as much reflection as it is the panels aren't opaque. I'm not that familiar with solar panels.

[Chris Peterson]

Yeah, I know they're attached to a fairly large structure, but still. The lighting is playing tricks on me. I've decided it's not as much reflection as it is the panels aren't opaque. I'm not that familiar with solar panels.

The PV panels are opaque. They are illuminated here by the reflected light of the ISS. Note the other areas of the ISS in this image that are shadowed from sunlight, but which are still quite well lit.

[geckzilla]

Chris, why do they take on an orange tint from the shadowed side? Especially in this picture? Are they black on one side and orange on the other?

[neufer]

why do they take on an orange tint from the shadowed side? Especially in this picture?

Copper “roll rings”

<<60 kW of power at 160 volts and multiple data channels are carried across each joint by copper “roll rings” contained within.>>

[Chris Peterson]

Chris, why do they take on an orange tint from the shadowed side? Especially in this picture? Are they black on one side and orange on the other?

They are a deep blue/black on their active side (makes sense: any light you reflect away isn't getting converted to electricity). I'm not sure about the back, but the pictures certainly seem to show an orange cast. That's pretty common with space-based systems. Kapton (an orange polymer film) is used for wrapping cables, providing insulation, covering surfaces, and all sorts of things. Gold-colored passivation coatings (anodizing and the like) are common on metal surfaces. And depending on how the cells are mounted, we might even see their backs directly, and semiconductor substrates can have a yellow cast.

[Stannex]

I was looking at this image and noticed that in the lens flare around the sun there seem to be some partial inverted letter shapes. I'm guessing that's a reflection of some computer screen inside the shuttle ... but wondered if Chris (or anyone else) could give a more detailed description of what that is.

Thanks.

[Chris Peterson]

I was looking at this image and noticed that in the lens flare around the sun there seem to be some partial inverted letter shapes. I'm guessing that's a reflection of some computer screen inside the shuttle ... but wondered if Chris (or anyone else) could give a more detailed description of what that is.

I think it's probably a reflection of the rim of the camera lens in the window.

[neufer]

I was looking at this image and noticed that in the lens flare around the sun there seem to be some partial inverted letter shapes. I'm guessing that's a reflection of some computer screen inside the shuttle ... but wondered if Chris (or anyone else) could give a more detailed description of what that is.

I think it's probably a reflection of the rim of the camera lens in the window.

• ICON, n. [L., fr. Gr.] An image or representation; a portrait or pretended portrait.
  
  ICONoclast, n. [Gr. image + to break: cf. F. iconoclaste.]
  
  1. A breaker or destroyer of images or idols; a determined enemy of idol worship.
  2. One who exposes or destroys impositions or shams; one who attacks cherished beliefs.

<<During World War II the Nippon Kōgaku company grew to 19 factories and 23,000 employees, supplying items such as binoculars, lenses, bomb sights, and periscopes to the Japanese military. The name NIKON dates from 1946 from a merging of Nippon Kōgaku and an imitation of ZEISS IKON. In 1948, the first Nikon-branded camera was released, the Nikon I. Nikon lenses were popularised by the American photojournalist David Douglas Duncan's use at the time of the Korean War. Fitting Nikon optics to his Leica rangefinder cameras produced high contrast negatives with very sharp resolution at the centre field.>>