Originally posted by NGC2736
Let's start easy here, with wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org...
Note the first two pictures on the right hand side of the page. In both, the flare washes out the image, toning down the view.
In the first picture the small blue flare at the bottom right is similar to our UFO, the UV filter probably explains the color change. The picture is not washed down at all... I don't understand... maybe you mean the halo around the Sun. The rest of the picture is crystal clear. As the main yellow light in the Chinese images is not as strong as the Sun, there is no halo around it.
These NASA images (AS14-66-9604, AS14-66-9605, AS14-66-9606) are perfect examples of lens flares.
See how they are homothetic relative to the center: the ratio of distances (flare-center) to (source-center) stays constant in all images. This property is typical of lens flares, it is not shared by any other artifact of reflection (like the nice reflection of the dashboard in the windshield posted by Sherpa
). That's why there is absolutely no doubt, objectively. In no picture here is the flare itself less visable than the object of the photo.
As you can see in the Apollo 14 images the circled lens flares are transparent, dim, far less visible than the light source, the Sun. I do hope we agree about this!
edit: picture links
[edit on 2008-6-27 by nablator]









