Mark McCaughrean2d ago

As I suspected, media are getting very confused about that #Artemis II Earth image, thanks to NASA’s poor original captioning.

This BBC article shows it as “Hello, world” without knowing / noting that it’s the dark side, illuminated by moonlight.

Then lower in the article it says NASA later released another image, this time showing Earth in near complete darkness with city lights.

Edit: not exactly the same image, but 19 sec apart with different exposures.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8jzr423p9o

Artemis II crew take 'spectacular' image of Earth

The snap was taken aboard the Orion capsule by its commander, Reid Wiseman, as the crew head towards the Moon.

BBC News
Show threadMauricio Duque Arrubla
@markmccaughrean @derpoltergeist Actually, it is not the same image. Exposure time and aperture between both images are different. Maybe the post-process as well, but it started with the actual photo
You can check EXIF data
Light mode https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e000192
Dark mode https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e000193
NASA Image and Video Library

NASA Image and Video Library, serving up consolidated imagery and videos in one searchable location. Users can download content in multiple sizes and resolutions and see the metadata associated with images, including EXIF/camera data on many images.

NASA Image and Video Library
Apr 4 at 3:47pmWeb
Show threadMark McCaughrean1d ago

@elpalabrista @derpoltergeist I'll admit, I did wonder when I made that assertion, but wasn't near a computer to check properly: thanks for doing so.

19 seconds apart, the dark one first with 1/15 sec at f/5.6, the light one 1/4 sec at f/4, both ISO 51200.

And there's some rotation between them.

But same underlying lighting conditions, which I guess is the main thing.

And NASA really should have said that the light image was also a darkside / night time shot – that's where the confusion is.

Show threadMauricio Duque Arrubla1d ago
@markmccaughrean @derpoltergeist I agree, NASA should have made it clear, for even more astonishment. Is incredible
Show threadMark McCaughrean1d ago
@elpalabrista @derpoltergeist Personally, I don't think the social media knew – surely the astronauts did, as they talked about it, & I imagine someone on the ground processed it & knew (or did they? at ISO 51200, perhaps that's straight out of the camera), but someone nearer the end of the pipeline didn't realise what gold they had in their hands.