Wednesday, August 14, 2013

A moonset picture

Here's an interesting picture provided by NASA -- the moonset of a new moon.  It is certainly not easy for an aim-and-shoot everyday camera to do.  This one was taken last night over Taiwan.



Here's the explanation NASA provided to accompany the picture:
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 theMoon to follow the Sun into the sea -- and the horizon to become dark.
Anyway clearly the ocean was rather calm at the moonset time. Or may be the ocean surface was too far away to see minutes before the sun rises for the new day!

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