How many times have you set up the perfect shot only to have somebody or something to ruin it in the background?
They’re not called photobombs for no reason and they can ruin a well composed picture.
But sometimes they add something or are even intentional, as is the case here where the dark side of the Moon is on full display with a blue Earth looming in the pitch-black background.
Coming from the Longjiang-2 satellite that has already given us a bevy of awesome photos, this picture courtesy of Dwingeloo Radio Observatory in the Netherlands shows a striated and pock-marked Moon in all of its glory. The amount of detail in the capture is pretty amazing.
And the Dwingeloo Radio Observatory even included the non-color corrected photos so we could see the originals (check it all out here). Purists always love to see the original images and, when they're this epic, we can't blame them at all for that notion.
Working in tandem with the Chang’e-4 probe that landed on the dark side’s surface, the Longjiang-2 satellite took the first picture of the dark side of the Moon and the Earth on February 4 according to a Tweet from the Netherlands observatory.
The mission is already paying huge dividends for the astro-photography community as well as the scientific community at large. Plus, China’s entry into space in a big way could signal the start of a renewed space race on the part of nations that are capable of doing these kinds of things.
One can only hope, right?
In the meantime we have these cool photos to look over and imagine the immensity of the unknown that surrounds us all.
As always, let us know what you think about the pic in the comments.
1 Comment
There is no “dark” side of the moon, contrary whatever Pink Floyd sing about. There is a “far” side of the moon that we cannot see. Every part of the moon, be it on the near or far side is 14 days a month in sunlight and 14 days in the dark.