# Remarkable images of Moon passing in front of Earth **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 2, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737 "2016-03-02T15:43:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/21 "2016-03-03T14:30:43Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Explain _that_, flat-earthers! CGI. It’s CGI all the way down. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/22 "2016-03-03T14:31:45Z")
Seriously, this is way cool. Thanks for sharing, \*\* Elendil’s Heir\*\*! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/23 "2016-03-03T14:35:29Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > Ipresume that satellite is parked at the L1 point, to be able to look down on Earth in permanent sunlight Ah, that explains it. I was trying to think how they could keep a satellite stable that far out, well past the geo-stationery orbit. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/24 "2016-03-03T15:20:36Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > NASA is part of the conspiracy, duh! > > I presume that satellite is parked at the L1 point, to be able to look down on Earth in permanent sunlight; I’d love to see a time lapse over weeks or months of the Earth rotating and the weather developing from that point of view. This does indeed seem to be the case: > [@](#): > > Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), launched on 11 February 2015, began orbiting L1 on 8 June 2015 to study the solar wind and its effects on Earth.[18] DISCOVR is unofficially known as GORESAT, because it carries a camera always oriented to Earth and capturing full-frame photos the planet similar to the Blue Marble. This concept was proposed by then-Vice President of the United States Al Gore in 1998[19] and was a centerpiece in his film An Inconvenient Truth.[20] > **[Lagrange point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point)** > > In celestial mechanics, the Lagrange points (/ləˈɡrɑːndʒ/; also Lagrangian points or libration points) are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the gravitational influence of two massive orbiting bodies. Mathematically, this involves the solution of the restricted three-body problem. > Normally, the two massive bodies exert an unbalanced gravitational force at a point, altering the orbit of whatever is at that point. At the Lagrange points, the gravitational forces of the two large... The L1, L2, and L3 points are technically unstable, but apparently you can put things in weird orbits about those points that are for all practical purposes stable. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/25 "2016-03-03T15:55:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The L1, L2, and L3 points are technically unstable, but apparently you can put things in weird orbits about those points that are for all practical purposes stable. Not really stable. Spacecraft in [the most common kind of L1 orbit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_orbit) have to expend stationkeeping energy (thrust, usually) or else the orbit will eventually diverge and the spacecraft will depart the Lagrange point. I’m trying to get a handle on how long an uncorrected L1 Lissajous orbit lasts, but haven’t found any primary sources. Just from how missions are planned, it’s gotta be shorter than the durations of the missions posted out there, since they all seem to go with stationkeeping delta-v on hand. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/26 "2016-03-03T16:03:55Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Not really stable. Spacecraft in [the most common kind of L1 orbit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_orbit) have to expend stationkeeping energy (thrust, usually) or else the orbit will eventually diverge and the spacecraft will depart the Lagrange point. I’m trying to get a handle on how long an uncorrected L1 Lissajous orbit lasts, but haven’t found any primary sources. Just from how missions are planned, it’s gotta be shorter than the durations of the missions posted out there, since they all seem to go with stationkeeping delta-v on hand. You musta missed that I said “for practical purposes stable”, and that they are technically unstable. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/27 "2016-03-03T18:27:57Z")
Also, in case there’s any confusion, we’re talking about the _Sun-Earth_ L1 point, not the Earth-Moon L1 ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/28 "2016-03-03T18:34:30Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > You row out into the middle of the ocean and at high tide you put up a ladder, climb up it and jump down on to the moon! > **Italo Calvino** said so in _The Distance of the Moon_ in his [Cosmicomics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmicomics) collection! Don’t recall sea monsters being mentioned at all. > The [first link here](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cosmicomics+calvino+text&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=PzHYVuXQCYq6UbjgkqgM) is the text as a pdf Unfortunately, [the ladder method](http://oglaf.com/ladder1/) is now [considered too hazardous](http://oglaf.com/ladder1/2/). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/29 "2016-03-03T21:29:45Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Seriously, this is way cool. Thanks for sharing, \*\* Elendil’s Heir\*\*! Glad to! I always appreciate a reminder of our proper place in the Universe. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/30 "2016-03-04T19:25:03Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > … > I presume that satellite is parked at the L1 point, to be able to look down on Earth in permanent sunlight; I’d love to see a time lapse over weeks or months of the Earth rotating and the weather developing from that point of view. NASA thought of that. Here you can watch each day’s rotation as a slideshow of a dozen stills: [http://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/](http://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/) I go there every morning and see how the planet did yesterday. If you go every day you’ll notice that some slides are missing some days. And occasionally a day or two is missing. I guess the pretty pix aren’t a big priority compared to the actual scientific data. But it was really cool to watch this typhoon form, wander around the Pacific, then dissipate: [SAIC | Digital Transformation](http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/e_pacific/2016/index.php) ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/31 "2016-03-04T20:24:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The neat thing about that image is that it’s showing you the so-called _far side_ of the moon fully lit by sunlight. What do you mean by “so-called”? Did you mean to say “so-called **dark side** of the moon?” ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/32 "2016-03-04T20:27:21Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > A dramatic illustration that the Moon is actually not very shiny. We’re used to seeing it all on its own, most often against the backdrop of the dark night sky, and not in front of a shiny blue planet, so we think of it as this brilliant silvery-white object rather than the dark gray world it really is. Yeah, holy cow, it’s dull and grey and dark and ugly. Is it really just the contrast with the night sky that makes it look so shiny? Maybe it only bother’s to pretty up the one side. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/33 "2016-03-04T20:41:11Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > What do you mean by “so-called”? Did you mean to say “so-called **dark side** of the moon?” Either is “so-called”. But “Dark Side” is, I think, misused in this context. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/34 "2016-03-04T21:08:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Either is “so-called”. But “Dark Side” is, I think, misused in this context. I guess I’m just confused because there IS a far side of the moon, so adding “so-called” seemed odd. Nevermind I guess! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/35 "2016-03-05T04:17:46Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > A dramatic illustration that the Moon is actually not very shiny. We’re used to seeing it all on its own, most often against the backdrop of the dark night sky, and not in front of a shiny blue planet, so we think of it as this brilliant silvery-white object rather than the dark gray world it really is. Which makes me wonder how dazzling the moon would be if it were as white as, say, beach sand. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/36 "2016-03-05T21:17:17Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Which makes me wonder how dazzling the moon would be if it were as white as, say, beach sand. If it were Venus at that distance, we would never have invented headlights. I mean, we would never have invented headlights because the tides would wash our cars off the road. Even in the middles of continents. Tides of lava, that is. But still, it’d be quite well illuminated. At least, when it was some time around the full moon. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/37 "2016-03-06T00:51:02Z")
I don’t remember the exact wording, but when this photo was first released one article had the headline of something like “Obnoxious Moon Spoils Perfectly Good Photograph of Earth”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/38 "2016-03-06T01:09:05Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > I guess I’m just confused because there IS a far side of the moon, so adding “so-called” seemed odd. Nevermind I guess! But from the POV of the pix taken from L1, that’s the close side of the Moon. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/39 "2016-03-06T01:14:48Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Which makes me wonder how dazzling the moon would be if it were as white as, say, beach sand. The moon’s albedo is about 1/3rd that of beach sand. So a Moon made of beach sand would appear about 3 times as bright as the real one does. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737/40 "2016-03-07T12:32:36Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > [THIS LOOKS SHOPPED](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-looks-shopped). I CAN TELL FROM SOME OF THE PIXELS AND FROM SEEING QUITE A FEW SHOPS IN MY TIME. seems so to me too :eek: Where b all the space junk flying around up there?? :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remarkable-images-of-moon-passing-in-front-of-earth/747737.md?page=3)