The Moon with an atmosphere

I took this photo with my phone and a simple refracting telescope Friday night. When I looked at it I noticed a pale blue haze around the moon which is probably just what it would look like if it had an oxygen rich atmosphere. I'm not sure if the effect came from the image being refracted in the telescope or from the camera, But I thought it was a pretty good picture considering it was taken with my phone.

Re-sized


Original

I seem to recall reading a Japanese probe (?) skimmed over and reported a very faint but definite atmosphere that wasn't there before? Those Apollo pics look 100% absolutely clear with nothing there... Who knows? Maybe the moon is changing in some subtle ways? Compared to Earth, we know absolutely nothing at all about it.

Thanks for sharing! Nice pics!

reply to post by BriGuyTM90


Nice photo! Certainly better than my attempts at astrophotography, so far.

The blue fringe is caused by chromatic abberation in the telescope lenses. I get it all the time when I'm looking through the eyepiece.

The Moon's actual "atmosphere" doesn't really deserve the title. It's so thin that it's actually a better vacuum than we can get in labs on Earth.

If the Moon actually had any sort of real atmosphere, it would be very obvious, even in a telescope like yours. Mars' atmosphere is only ~1/100th that of Earth's and yet its dust storms are visible from tens of millions of miles away. Also, if the Moon had an atmosphere, it would refract the light from stars & planets passing behind the Moon during occultations.

So what. They're still good pix!

Is it Chromatic Aberration?

Haha - poster above me got it.

I don't have a great knowledge of telescopes but I suspect this could be an effect of the telescope/camera, perhaps it had a blue tint because the light has to pass through our nitrogen/oxygen rich atmosphere.

Or maybe the aliens are going to terraform the moon to use as a death star to escape when the earth gets destroyed in a few months. Bet the Mayans didn't see that coming....or maybe they did

Thanks for all your replies. I just want to state that I was never trying to claim that this was actually an atmosphere, if any one got that impression. I just thought it was a cool pic and thought I would share.

Originally posted by Saint Exupery
reply to post by BriGuyTM90

 

Nice photo! Certainly better than my attempts at astrophotography, so far.

The blue fringe is caused by chromatic abberation in the telescope lenses. I get it all the time when I'm looking through the eyepiece.

The Moon's actual "atmosphere" doesn't really deserve the title. It's so thin that it's actually a better vacuum than we can get in labs on Earth.

If the Moon actually had any sort of real atmosphere, it would be very obvious, even in a telescope like yours. Mars' atmosphere is only ~1/100th that of Earth's and yet its dust storms are visible from tens of millions of miles away. Also, if the Moon had an atmosphere, it would refract the light from stars & planets passing behind the Moon during occultations.

So what. They're still good pix!

This... please learn about optics OP before you start conspiracicing about something like atmosphere on the moon. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about your photos blue fringe.

EDIT... just saw your last post... so instead I direct mine at people who tries to keep the idea alive.

Originally posted by flice

Originally posted by Saint Exupery
reply to post by BriGuyTM90

 

Nice photo! Certainly better than my attempts at astrophotography, so far.

The blue fringe is caused by chromatic abberation in the telescope lenses. I get it all the time when I'm looking through the eyepiece.

The Moon's actual "atmosphere" doesn't really deserve the title. It's so thin that it's actually a better vacuum than we can get in labs on Earth.

If the Moon actually had any sort of real atmosphere, it would be very obvious, even in a telescope like yours. Mars' atmosphere is only ~1/100th that of Earth's and yet its dust storms are visible from tens of millions of miles away. Also, if the Moon had an atmosphere, it would refract the light from stars & planets passing behind the Moon during occultations.

So what. They're still good pix!

This... please learn about optics OP before you start conspiracicing about something like atmosphere on the moon. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about your photos blue fringe.

EDIT... just saw your last post... so instead I direct mine at people who tries to keep the idea alive.

edit on 10/10/12 by flice because: (no reason given)

YOU prove its not an atmosphere
If there's one thing we can all be sure of these days, its that we cant believe anything we are told. I'm not sying it IS an atmosphere, but if people are going to say its not then PROVE it!

reply to post by VoidHawk

YOU prove its not an atmosphere
If there's one thing we can all be sure of these days, its that we cant believe anything we are told. I'm not sying it IS an atmosphere, but if people are going to say its not then PROVE it!

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by DJW001
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

YOU prove its not an atmosphere
If there's one thing we can all be sure of these days, its that we cant believe anything we are told. I'm not sying it IS an atmosphere, but if people are going to say its not then PROVE it!

en.wikipedia.org...

Thats not proof because an atmosphere would also cause the blue haze.
I know a camera can cause this effect, but so can an atmosphere, therefore we need proof that its NOT an atmosphere

reply to post by VoidHawk

Thats not proof because an atmosphere would also cause the blue haze.
I know a camera can cause this effect, but so can an atmosphere, therefore we need proof that its NOT an atmosphere

If the Moon had an atmosphere, stars would "fade out" as the Moon passed in front of them. They do not.* Therefore, the Moon has no (discernible) atmosphere. Since the Moon has no atmosphere, the blue outline must be due entirely to chromatic aberration. QED.

*I have observed this myself. You can, too.

reply to post by VoidHawk


If you're going to quote my post, could you please, at the very least, READ IT?!

It's purple finging, the bane of every photographer. en.wikipedia.org...

The Moon's "atmosphere" is just a few atoms knocking about here and there. en.wikipedia.org...

P.S. Was it by any chance iPhone 5? www.techradar.com...

Originally posted by VoidHawk

Thats not proof because an atmosphere would also cause the blue haze.
I know a camera can cause this effect, but so can an atmosphere, therefore we need proof that its NOT an atmosphere

You're not quite getting this whole "burden of proof" thing. You believe it's an atmosphere? Then by all means, supply the evidence. It's not down to others to disprove claims that are unsupported by evidence.

Prove that I'm not the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.

Originally posted by flice

Originally posted by Saint Exupery
reply to post by BriGuyTM90

 

Nice photo! Certainly better than my attempts at astrophotography, so far.

The blue fringe is caused by chromatic abberation in the telescope lenses. I get it all the time when I'm looking through the eyepiece.

The Moon's actual "atmosphere" doesn't really deserve the title. It's so thin that it's actually a better vacuum than we can get in labs on Earth.

If the Moon actually had any sort of real atmosphere, it would be very obvious, even in a telescope like yours. Mars' atmosphere is only ~1/100th that of Earth's and yet its dust storms are visible from tens of millions of miles away. Also, if the Moon had an atmosphere, it would refract the light from stars & planets passing behind the Moon during occultations.

So what. They're still good pix!

This... please learn about optics OP before you start conspiracicing about something like atmosphere on the moon. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about your photos blue fringe.

EDIT... just saw your last post... so instead I direct mine at people who tries to keep the idea alive.

edit on 10/10/12 by flice because: (no reason given)

i LOVE reading criticizing posts where the "criticizer" cant spell and doesnt have very good grammar.

also, the pic looks cool, i wish i could take close ups of the moon. my telescope doesnt zoom that close.

Originally posted by VoidHawk

Originally posted by DJW001
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

YOU prove its not an atmosphere
If there's one thing we can all be sure of these days, its that we cant believe anything we are told. I'm not sying it IS an atmosphere, but if people are going to say its not then PROVE it!

en.wikipedia.org...

Thats not proof because an atmosphere would also cause the blue haze.
I know a camera can cause this effect, but so can an atmosphere, therefore we need proof that its NOT an atmosphere

It's called Spectroscopy. If the moon had any atmosphere more then the mere few molecules that it does, the elements making up that atmosphere (IE Oxygen, Nitrogen, CO2, etc), would show very strong lines in the spectrum as the sun light reflects off the moon, and as the moon passes in front of the sun during a solar eclipse.

This does not take NASA to do. Even you could do it at home with the right equipment and if you know what you were looking at.

The blue rim seen can be caused by telescope optics, especially when using Refracting Telescopes, and you won't just see blue. Take another close look at the OP's photos, and you'll see more than blue there. Just like light when it passes through a prism.

So I'm afraid, yes, it's been well proven that the moon does not have a very significant atmosphere, and certainly not one that would cause a "blue haze" (which, BTW - not all planets that have atmospheres will cause a blue haze....it can be other colors too).

reply to post by Dizrael


It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Originally posted by wildespace

P.S. Was it by any chance iPhone 5? www.techradar.com...

edit on 10-10-2012 by wildespace because: (no reason given)

Nope Evo 4G. I'm not a follower I wouldn't buy that POS just because every one els does. Also it would be nice if people actually read what I wrote about the picture and not just assume I'm trying to say the moon has an atmosphere. I clearly said I didn't know if the EFFECT came from the telescope or the camera, and that this is probably what the moon would look like IF it had an atmosphere. But thanks for every ones input, I got learned what Chromatic Aberration is.

Knock off the bickering folks. Discuss the topic, not each other.

great pics showing the visual effects often encountered in astral photography