a blue light seen next to the moon

about an hour ago, my sister send a sms to me asking me to "look at the moon where the clouds turn dark..." [the exact phrase she uses], which i did not know what for, she then send me a pic that looks like this




it looks like an overexpose picture to me. my family lives in the SE.Asia while I am living in the middle east at the moment, I tried to go out to my balcony to see if I could spot the same anomalies next to moon, but the view from my apartment is blocked by buildings, apparently it looks like a big ring next to the moon.

I am wondering if anyone out there from any part of the whole observe the same anomaly next to the moon?

It's basically a lens flare. I call 'em moondogs. I took a series of them awhile back just because. You can pretty much put the "blue light" right where you want it.

They're pretty but nothing out of this world. Peace.

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i would say lens flare. She was probably taking a pic of the ring around the moon, which is a normal occurance and noticed the blue light after. I think she might not have seen it with the naked eye. Beautiful pic, though!

thanks guys, for a moment there I thought she spotted a spaceship next to the moon , since she is still in south east asia, i figure the spaceship might be heading towards my hometown and I was rather lazy to walk out towards the beach here to catch a glimpse, it is still rather hot to walk out in the arab emirates at the moment..

can't see the frickin' moon although it's nearly full moon here and was visible until last night lol (Delhi) - in other news, the really bright satellite thingy has moved from it's old spot where it hung motionless for a couple of months to a spot that's nearly ... well 50 meters of sky from my vantage point. I wonder what they do, must be for TV

reply to post by rainychica


Even if it is a lens flare it sure is beautiful...Wonder how many people in the past that didn't know that was a lens flare,well I wonder what they thought it was...LOL

Question for all you camera flare, sun-dog, moon-dog experts.

Can these effects be seen with the naked eye?
If you see the effect visually with the naked eye and also pick it up via a camera or lens, isn't the effect a 'real' object?

reply to post by rainychica


it must be the ISS, maybe they have decided to move to get a better view for their window..hahahahah

Originally posted by fah0436
Question for all you camera flare, sun-dog, moon-dog experts.

Can these effects be seen with the naked eye?
If you see the effect visually with the naked eye and also pick it up via a camera or lens, isn't the effect a 'real' object?

No, it can't be seen with the naked eye. It's all internal to the camera lens and is actually a mini-reproduction of the moon in blue.

Originally posted by fah0436
Question for all you camera flare, sun-dog, moon-dog experts.

Can these effects be seen with the naked eye?
If you see the effect visually with the naked eye and also pick it up via a camera or lens, isn't the effect a 'real' object?

I'm not an expert of anykind, but I believe that effects caused by the interaction of light and optical lenses, need both to occur.
There might be phenomena that is caused by means of "atmospheric lensing" or something though...

reply to post by affeyee


my current pet theory is that when the ISS comes a-crashing down to our little home planet, it will burn BLUE!!! Thus fulfilling the Hopi prophecy of the 'blue star' that signals the start of the S hitting the F!!!

www.angelfire.com... scroll down a bit, it's the 9th & final sign, when it happens the Hopis and so on will cease to perform their ceremonies. I guess it's to be expected if S is hitting the F.

Do you folks think this post of mine warrants a whole new thread?

reply to post by The GUT


But you don't see lens flares with your eyes, you see it in a photo. I wonder what prompted the photo in the first place, as I always do when these things come up. What motivated the person to take the photo. The OP led me to believe that this persons sister saw this then took the photo. What did she see that made her photograph the moon? I understand the lens flare thing. I've seen enough photos on here to last a lifetime actually. I am not saying this is anything but a lens flare. I just wonder what people see that makes them want to take a picture.

reply to post by karen61057
I think the camera operator was taking a pic of the ring around the moon and then noticed the artifact afterwards.

You can see the flare in the viewfinder, but not with the naked eye, of course, as it's not there. Maybe they saw it in the viewfinder and thought it was really in the sky?

reply to post by fah0436


sundogs, moon dogs, and sun/moon rings can be seen with the naked eye. flares are created within the lens of a camera and not seen with the naked eye.

reply to post by The GUT

First sundogs and moon lens flare, I will try to capture the moon to see if i can get something like this.

reply to post by rainychica


hmm...sounds interesting, perhaps you should create a new thread

Sometimes people think they see something they want to try and capture, and its convenient at the time to grab their camera. One evening I saw a faint moonbow while we were cooking out, so I decided to shoot it. What I got, and this example are the blurrier images sandwiched together, was a beautiful green lens flair I didn't see with my naked eyes, you can see a time elapse, I may have changed camera location also.




Unfortunately a week later, when it was colder I saw a much more pronounced circular rainbow circle around the moon at least twice the diameter, but it wasn't convenient to set up a tripod, I only had my midget one with me.

a reply to: affeyee

I am not so sure about this theory. I live in the United States in Texas I also have a couple of pictures with this blue spot. I am curious about the fact that I took these pictures about 5 min apart and the spot moved. My daughter sent me a picture the next day the blue dot is back and in a different location. Was wondering if yall feel like this is the same.

Question,

If this is a lens flare, then wouldn't you only be able to see it looking through a lens?

I'm looking at a full moon with my bare eyes right now on the west coast of FL, no blue light.

a reply to: karen61057

This is whats considered a supper moon, the moon to some people is amazing and beautiful. I am sure she just thought it would make a nice picture. Most people take pictures of objects because they like the way they look.