Subject: Far Side of the Moon + Earth
From: Alex Kemp
Date: Thursday, 6 August 2015 23:05:23 +0100
To: Oliver Kemp, Micaela Kemp, Liisa Kemp, Davin Kemp

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33799200
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/from-a-million-miles-away-nasa-camera-shows-moon-crossing-face-of-earth

We folks on Earth never get to see the far side of the Moon but--if you put a camera on a satellite a million miles sun-side of the Earth--you can see the far side of the Moon:-

The Moon is moving up & to the right in this photo

NASA says:-

These images were taken between 3:50 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. EDT on July 16 2015, showing the moon moving over the Pacific Ocean near North America. The North Pole is in the upper left corner of the image, reflecting the orbital tilt of Earth from the vantage point of the spacecraft.
The Moon has now in this photo almost fully passed between the Sun & The Earth

The satellite is called the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), and the camera is called the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). They both normally do real-time solar wind monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The Moon is "tidally locked" to the Earth, meaning that the Moon always shows the same face to our planet.

The DSCOVR satellite takes a full-colour photo by combining monochrome photos:-

EPIC’s “natural color” images of Earth are generated by combining three separate monochrome exposures taken by the camera in quick succession. EPIC takes a series of 10 images using different narrowband spectral filters -- from ultraviolet to near infrared -- to produce a variety of science products. The red, green and blue channel images are used in these color images.

Combining three images taken about 30 seconds apart as the moon moves produces a slight but noticeable camera artifact on the right side of the moon. Because the moon has moved in relation to the Earth between the time the first (red) and last (green) exposures were made, a thin green offset appears on the right side of the moon when the three exposures are combined. This natural lunar movement also produces a slight red and blue offset on the left side of the moon in these unaltered images.
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Alex Kemp