This? Oh Just Video of the Moon Transiting the Earth
Holy CRAP this video sequence of the mooon transiting in front of the earth is awesome. And yeah, that’s the back… I repeat… the BACK of the moon we are seeing slide past us in this frame. Here’s what NASA had to say about the satellite and what it does.
“EPIC maintains a constant view of the fully illuminated Earth as it rotates, providing scientific observations of ozone, vegetation, cloud height and aerosols in the atmosphere. Once EPIC begins regular observations next month, the camera will provide a series of Earth images allowing study of daily variations over the entire globe. About twice a year the camera will capture the moon and Earth together as the orbit of DSCOVR crosses the orbital plane of the moon.”
You can see North America, and Baja, sliding by on the earth under the clouds. And oh, by the way, you can also see the dull orb that is the moon too. Yeah. That’s there too. This obviously isn’t the first pictures of the back of the moon we’ve been privy too. Our first pictures of that vantage date all the way back to 1959 when the Soviets were returning their first images from the Luna 3. And obviously its fairly difficult to grab these shots because the moon is tidally locked with the earth. No. I actually don’t know what that means. So don’t ask. But what I do know is that this is a wicked cool perspective that NASA has given us here.
“It is surprising how much brighter Earth is than the moon,” said Adam Szabo, DSCOVR project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Our planet is a truly brilliant object in dark space compared to the lunar surface.”
Totally dig this kind of geeked out science. I mean, when was the last time you saw the back of the moon? I rest my case. NASA One – Cocky Internet Wanderer Zero. You are welcome web visitor. (Says the guy who did nothing but click a few wordpress buttons. hahaha.)
