See you beyond the dark side of the moon

[PakledHostage]

A new GIF has been released showing the moon transiting the Earth. It was shot by DISCOVR last month. Nearly the full face of the moon's "dark side" is illuminated. North America and Australia are also clearly visible in the image.

[Shpaget]

The NASA article explains how each frame is a composite of three shots using different filters to obtain the natural colors.

If a conspiracy theorist was trying to make a case, he'd be stupid not to realize that fixing that little fringing is quite easy and would not slip by or even happen in the first place if someone was pasting a picture of the Moon over the Earth.

Also, I believe it's common knowledge in groups interested in space that most space telescopes do not use the cameras with fixed filters as is the case for most consumer cameras down here on Earth, but have a system that can swap them around.

Edited August 15, 2015 by Vanamonde

[PakledHostage]

The NASA article explains how each frame is a composite of three shots using different filters to obtain the natural colors.

I just stumbled upon this Scott Manley video about the series of images in the GIF above. And while I do tend to think he gets too much hype, he does give a good explanation of how these images were obtained.

[Kilmeister]

It's funny, Until I watched that Scott Manley video I never put 2 and 2 together to realize that this was the infamous "GoreSat". When I heard about DSCOVR my reaction was that I was happy that they were finally putting up a satellite in Earth/Sun's L1 like the "GoreSat" was supposed to be, not realizing that it essentially was the same satellite from the early 2000's, just re branded and with newer toys.

[Bill Phil]

Is that a reference to Brain Damage? I sure hope it is...

Anyhow, it seems like there is a slightly darker side of the moon?

[lajoswinkler]

I honestly cringe at how some english-speaking areas use the "dark side" meme. Until I've heard it online, I never thought about the Moon as having one.

Sociolinguistical stupidity at work, I guess.

[Scotius]

Yeah. "Far side" sounds good too, and is at least accurate.

[Technical Ben]

I honestly cringe at how some english-speaking areas use the "dark side" meme. Until I've heard it online, I never thought about the Moon as having one.

Sociolinguistical stupidity at work, I guess.

I cannot consider anything that talks about it. I have to move away, escape, ring alarms... It winds me up no end! (The moon does not have a "dark side" other than a shadow side, and in the picture it's the far side not, and never is the "dark side"... it's like people calling their left hand their "lower hand" or "left foot" it's completely wrong!)

[BagelRabbit]

Anyhow, it seems like there is a slightly darker side of the moon?

The darker side of the Moon, not counting the night side, is actually the near side of the Moon (the one we see when we look up at night). It has a number of dark lava seas called "maria," whereas the far side has very few.

Here, look at this albedo image taken from the Clementine orbiter:

As you can see, the side visible to us here on Earth is quite a bit darker overall.

So whenever someone says "the dark side of the Moon," you can smile to yourself knowing that it's not difficult to see, especially with binoculars or a telescope of any size

...unless you're talking about 'metaphorical darkness,' like the Dark Ages, and saying that we don't know much about the far side of the moon. Even then, that's not really true either anymore.

-Upsilon

[PakledHostage]

Sociolinguistical stupidity at work, I guess.

Or a reference, as Bill Phil pointed out, to the Pink Floyd song "Brain Damage". I am sure there are plenty of examples of "sociolinguistical stupidity" in many languages. In English, the "dark side of the moon" is synonymous with the more scientifically accurate "far side of the moon".

EDIT:

I should add that the word "dark" in English does not just mean the absence of light. It can also mean:

Unknown or concealed; mysterious

Evil in nature or effect; sinister

Edited August 15, 2015 by PakledHostage

[CalculusWarrior]

Unknown or concealed; mysterious

I feel like that sense of the word is where the whole 'Dark Side of the Moon' misnomer came from in the first place. It's just taking a while to dislodge that name from our collective conciousness.

[Vanamonde]

With regard to some removed & edited posts: please keep the discussions on-topic, people, and try not to say mean things about each other.