Solar eclipse on the Moon?

Dr. Neville Thomas Jones, Ph.D.

The photograph shown in Fig. 1 was claimed by NASA to have been taken during their alleged Apollo missions to the Moon. It is to be found in, amongst other places, the Photo Gallery of the very well-established Maris Multimedia astronomical program, "Redshift." (Windows version 1.2, copyright © 1993 Maris Multimedia Ltd.)

Figure 1: From "The Moon" section of the Redshift Photo Gallery - Title: Earth eclipse - Copyright: none specified - Credit: NASA.

Notice, in addition to the subjective unreality of this picture, the following objective, observational criticisms:

1. The angular size of the World, with respect to that of the Sun, is far too small.
2. The amount of the Sun's disc (and hence brilliant light) that is apparently still present would bleach the entire exposure.
3. The lack of atmospheric effects around the lower hemisphere of the World.
4. The darkness of the "lunar surface."
5. The uneven illumination of the "lunar surface."
6. The absence of flaring down the lens.
7. The title is even wrong, because this would not have been an "Earth eclipse," but a solar eclipse.

Whoever faked this photograph made one serious blunder. They did not realize that the angular extent of the World, when viewed from the Moon (if that were possible), would be very much bigger than the angular extent of the Moon, when viewed from the World, as Fig. 2 (created via the same "Redshift" software package) will demonstrate.

Figure 2: (a) The relative sizes of the World and Sun, as would be seen from the Moon; (b) A solar eclipse, as viewed from the World.

Note how similar Fig. 2(b) is to whatever was used to create Fig. 1.

Conclusion

The original NASA photograph reproduced as Fig. 1 was fraudulent.