Starship Asterisk*

Moonset from Taiwan

Explanation: It took three worlds to create this simple image. The first world was the Earth, which was quite prominent. The dividing line running horizontally below the middle separates sea from sky. On this part of the Earth, it was almost nighttime. The second world was the Moon, which was almost invisible. The Moon had its unilluminated half masked by the red sunset glow of Earth's sky. A thin sliver of the new Moon was visible, a crescent that traces the bright curving line. The third world was the Sun, which does not appear directly. All of the light recorded in the image originated from the Sun. The above half-second exposure was taken last week from Anping, Taiwan. A few minutes after this image was taken the Earth had spun just a little bit further -- forcing the Moon to follow the Sun into the sea -- and the horizon to become dark.

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Simply beautiful in simplicity and beauty! This photo inspires me very much and I've always wanted to compose a similar image. Very nice work by the photographer...

This image shows natures elegant calligraphy in all its simplicity.
The thin illuminated crescent represents the right half of an Etruscan Vase as the the line bends outwards just above the horizon line.

/*Peter R

Beautiful image, but I don't think I'd describe the sun as a "world".

"Orb," perhaps.

PeterR wrote:This image shows natures elegant calligraphy in all its simplicity.

That's a beautiful way to put it.

As soon as I saw this image (posted in the Submissions thread here), I hoped it might be an APOD. Such a simple, elegant, lovely image!

Calling the sun a 'world' is about as un-sciencey sounding as it gets. Well, I suppose it could be referred to a shiny blobulette or something even less sciencey.

Guess I just don't get this one. See you tomorrow APOD

The Solar aliens living in the sun might object to your Earth-centric discrimination against the use of "world".

Since when is the sun a "world"?

geckzilla wrote:
The Solar aliens living in the sun might object to your Earth-centric discrimination against the use of "world".

World, n. [OE. world; properly, the age of man, lifetime, humanity; AS. wer a man + a word akin to E. old; Cf. Werewolf.]

1. The earth and the surrounding heavens; the creation; the system of created things; existent creation; the universe.

• With desire to know, What nearer might concern him, how this world Of heaven and earth conspicuous first began. Milton.

2. Any planet or heavenly body, especially when considered as inhabited,
and as the scene of interests analogous with human interests; as, a plurality of worlds.

• Amongst innumerable stars, that shone Star distant, but high-hand seemed other worlds. Milton.

whomever wrote:...sun a "world"?

Gee whiz, science and poetry CAN coexist.

FloridaMike wrote:Gee whiz, science and poetry CAN coexist.

A truth known to most scientists, but struggled over by many poets.

“In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. Poetry is the exact opposite.” ~ Paul Dirac

Cool looking shot....great job!!!

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Ahh....ah...hemmmm......TWO WORLDS....and A STAR!!!!!!!!! HELLO??????? or even ONE WORLD....ONE MOON... AND A STAR....more accurate in terms....


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rockythemountaineer wrote:....un-sciencey....

poetic usage of the word "world" being lost on a lot of APoD'ers today

I'd say four worlds anyway - let's not forget the world of the imagination (of the photographer)

It is inaccurate to claim all the light in the image was supplied by the sun. Surely a photon or two was man made and other stars certainly contributed some light to the scene. If one were able to catalog the origin of each photon recorded, I bet the diversity would astound us all.

Climbmateconned wrote:It is inaccurate to claim all the light in the image was supplied by the sun. Surely a photon or two was man made and other stars certainly contributed some light to the scene. If one were able to catalog the origin of each photon recorded, I bet the diversity would astound us all.

While it is true that photons from somewhere other than the Sun hit the camera sensor, the fact is their count would be far below the inherent thermal noise of that sensor, and of the other instrumental and non-instrumental noise sources. So they can very properly be treated as not existing at all.

Beautiful image
Instead of three worlds : three astronomical objects

FloridaMike wrote: Gee whiz, science and poetry CAN coexist.

can and do coexist-- http://www.astropoetica.com/-- but the signature aspect of poetry is to use language with precision.

geoffrey.landis wrote:

FloridaMike wrote:
Gee whiz, science and poetry CAN coexist.

can and do coexist-- http://www.astropoetica.com/-- but the signature aspect of poetry is to use language with precision.

It's actually more lucrative than science or poetry taken individually:

http://www.astropoetica.com/guidelines.html wrote:
Payment: We offer $5 (US) per accepted poem for one time electronic rights, paid on acceptance.