Starship Asterisk*

A Moon Dressed Like Saturn

Explanation: Why does Saturn appear so big? It doesn't -- what is pictured are foreground clouds on Earth crossing in front of the Moon. The Moon shows a slight crescent phase with most of its surface visible by reflected Earthlight known as ashen glow. The Sun directly illuminates the brightly lit lunar crescent from the bottom, which means that the Sun must be below the horizon and so the image was taken before sunrise. This double take-inducing picture was captured on 2019 December 24, two days before the Moon slid in front of the Sun to create a solar eclipse. In the foreground, lights from small Guatemalan towns are visible behind the huge volcano Pacaya.

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The moon with accessories often make for fun photos.

Congrats to all at APOD for the prize - https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2206/!

Wow! What a great picture, Mr. Francisco Sojuel. For the first 5 seconds at least of clicking onto APOD I really thought it was Saturn! And which moon of Saturn I wondered had what looks like city lights?

gmPhil wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 8:04 am Congrats to all at APOD for the prize - https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2206/!

+1

Nice Moon shot! Good catch by Sojuel! Siamese?? conjoined?? Na! Siamese!

I wonder how come that stars are smeared like in a long exposure, Moon is crisp and lights from small Guatemalan towns are crisp.
The three must move differentially, must they not? Or is Moon in fact smeared?

Am I misinterpreting something in the caption? It seems to be saying that, since the Moon is illuminated from the bottom, the Sun is below the horizon so the picture was taken before sunrise. Could not the picture have been taken after sunset? Six months earlier??

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 1:01 pm

Click to view full size image

Nice Moon shot! Good catch by Sojuel!

Click to view full size image

Siamese?? conjoined?? Na!

Click to view full size image

Siamese!

Love your post and your kitty pictures, Orin!

Ann

VictorBorun wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 1:41 pm I wonder how come that stars are smeared like in a long exposure, Moon is crisp and lights from small Guatemalan towns are crisp.
The three must move differentially, must they not?
Or is Moon in fact smeared?

If the moon was being tracked by the camera and the exposure was long enough then that would explain why the moon is sharp and there are star trails. As for the city lights being sharp it was a seperate exposure.

Louis wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:16 pm Am I misinterpreting something in the caption? It seems to be saying that, since the Moon is illuminated from the bottom, the Sun is below the horizon so the picture was taken before sunrise. Could not the picture have been taken after sunset? Six months earlier??

You are correct, it was just left unsaid.

Louis wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:16 pm Am I misinterpreting something in the caption? It seems to be saying that, since the Moon is illuminated from the bottom, the Sun is below the horizon so the picture was taken before sunrise. Could not the picture have been taken after sunset? Six months earlier??

No. The angle of the ecliptic would be reversed, so we'd see the crescent on the lower right rather than the lower left. And the features on the Moon would be "upside down" compared with the features in this image.

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:52 pm

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 1:01 pm

Click to view full size image

Nice Moon shot! Good catch by Sojuel!

Click to view full size image

Siamese?? conjoined?? Na!

Click to view full size image

Siamese!

Love your post and your kitty pictures, Orin!

Ann

Thanks Ann! The cats on the coach were in the write up! The Siamese I looked up !

Fred the Cat wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 5:11 am The moon with accessories often make for fun photos.
IMG_9170 (2).JPG

This is true.

Astronymus wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:07 pm

Fred the Cat wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 5:11 am The moon with accessories often make for fun photos.
IMG_9170 (2).JPG

This is true.

spidermoon.jpg

Oh no - it's the dreaded Spider Moon!

[EDIT: posted before seeing the image file name Also, "Spider Moon, Spider Moon, friendly neighborhood Spider Moon. Etc."]