Moon Transits Earth




(YouTube link)

This is not a Hollywood special effect. This is an actual video of the Earth and moon taken from 50 million kilometers away.

First, the setup. The Deep Impact spacecraft was the one that smacked a chunk of copper into a comet so that we could see what materials were below the surface. After the impact, the spacecraft kept going (with the mission renamed EPOXI), and it’s being used to do all sorts of interesting observations.

In late May, 2008, it turned its cameras back to Earth and observed us over the course of a several hours. During this time, from EPOXI’s point of view, the Moon passed directly in front of the Earth! The images were put together (by my old boss, Don Lindler!) into, well, one of the most astonishing animations I have ever watched. Ever.
….
This is a view that is literally impossible from the ground. Only a spacefaring race gets the privilege of this view from a height.

Bad Astronomy Blog has more information, and links to even more. Link


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Posted on July 17, 2008 at 9:45 pm by Miss Cellania
Category: Science & Tech, Video Clips



6 comments to "Moon Transits Earth"

  • AnUnSi
    July 18th, 2008 at 8:24 am

    “This is not a Hollywood special effect. This is an actual video of the Earth and moon taken from 50 million kilometers away.”

    Uh, no. Not “50 million kilometers away,” but “31 million miles away,” as the opening seconds of the video clip mention. Americans (the source of the video clip) RESOUNDINGLY reject the metric system. Even Great Britain retains references to miles.

    The first attempts to convert the U.S.A. were made (if I recall correctly) in the 1970s, and got a whopping “THUMBS DOWN” from the people of the nation that had SAVED THE CIVILIZED WORLD in World Wars I and II.

    We Americans are perfectly happy with our inches, feet, yards, miles, ounces, pounds, gallons, etc., thank you — and we don’t need help in measuring things from other parts of the world. Contrary to the desires of misguided idealists (a la John Lennon and Yoko Ono), the world will always consist of separate nations, each with its own customs and standards.

  • Larfin Jackarse
    July 18th, 2008 at 9:00 am

    Hi AnUnSi,

    I hope you are well.

    I strongly agree with you that you USA’n’s should continue to use the system imposed upon you by your ex-rulers Great Britain. Who else will keep the Imperial measurement system alive? Close to all of the Commonwealth of Nations (still ruled and sentenced to Queenish dungeons by Her Maj’) were seduced by those ugly Frenchies to use metric.

    ps: as a start you might want to check your spelling, CIVILIZED has an S,

  • megusta
    July 18th, 2008 at 9:28 am

    AnUnSi, if your post isn’t satirical, I have no idea how to respond.

  • Xinavera
    July 18th, 2008 at 11:10 am

    Nifty! That really gives you an idea of the relative sizes and colors of both Earth and Moon. I guess Deep Impact has nothing better to do at the moment, so why not take in the sights?

  • RM
    July 19th, 2008 at 9:04 pm

    I would like to see it in high quality. I´ll search it.

  • ted
    July 19th, 2008 at 9:40 pm

    AnUnSi knows that the metric system was designed by homosexuals to make certain body parts sound longer. Which sounds more impressive - 3 inches or 7.62 centimeters?

    Oh, and thanks again for saving the civilized world twice there. I guess that makes up for everything since.

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