Firefly releases movie of lunar sunset
Click for original image.
Using imagery taken by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, the company today released a short movie showing sunset on the Moon, from several different angles.
I have embedded that movie below. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, is one of the photos from that movie. It shows the Sun on the horizon, with the Earth above it and Venus the small bright dot in between.
One alien aspect of the Moon that that while the Sun (and Venus) slowly crossed the sky during Firefly’s two week mission, going from just after sunrise in the east to sunset in the west, the Earth remained stationary in this location above the horizon. This phenomenon occurs because the length of the Moon’s day and its orbit around the Earth are the same length, so that one hemisphere always faces the Earth. Blue Ghost landed in Mare Crisium on the eastern edge of that hemisphere. At that location the Earth always hangs at this spot in the sky.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Click for original image.
Using imagery taken by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, the company today released a short movie showing sunset on the Moon, from several different angles.
I have embedded that movie below. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, is one of the photos from that movie. It shows the Sun on the horizon, with the Earth above it and Venus the small bright dot in between.
One alien aspect of the Moon that that while the Sun (and Venus) slowly crossed the sky during Firefly’s two week mission, going from just after sunrise in the east to sunset in the west, the Earth remained stationary in this location above the horizon. This phenomenon occurs because the length of the Moon’s day and its orbit around the Earth are the same length, so that one hemisphere always faces the Earth. Blue Ghost landed in Mare Crisium on the eastern edge of that hemisphere. At that location the Earth always hangs at this spot in the sky.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Thanks Firefly.! The landers of all companies should do more of these “looking back” shots as I think it would stmulate wide public interest (consciouness & support) plus visualization. The other day I was wondering if an Earth-solar “eclipse” from the Moon would match the Moon-solar eclipse from th Earth where the orbs are congruent. Offhand I can’t see why that should necessarily be the case but here it does appear the Sun/Earth orbs are similar.
Thanks Firefly, thanks BYB.
That was the first thing I also noticed, as seen from the moon, the earth and the sun are the same size. I wonder if we’ve ever taken a picture of Earth solar eclipse? The atmosphere around the earth will make it look completely different.
Max: Um, you might want to scroll down a bit for the eclipse of the Sun by Earth that Blue Ghost took just a few days ago.
This would be haunting footage even if Blue Ghost wasn’t signing off for good afterward. But since it is…
It’s all the more powerful.
And it’s the final proof of just how brilliant Firefly has been in this mission. It is not just that they hit every NASA milestone (even the bonus ones); it’s how good they were in communicating it. A great landing broadcast, regular updates on the mission, and lots of terrific imagery. CLPS contractors should look at Firefly as the gold standard now.
Robert: my bad.
The beautiful earth eclipse was posted on the 14th, the day I started five days of 13 hour graveyard shifts. I’ve been taking care of neglected business before ”reading and researching” but still haven’t got caught up, “up-to-date” on all the recent postings.
Out of boredom I used to check my phone often and post from work. I could do this because the device we wore on our head to determine the wavelength of brain function (alpha or beta waves) “did not work”. It’s purpose was to warn company administrators if an operator was falling asleep on the job. (it activated when in contact with the forehead skin… brand-name “smart cap”)
The replacement is “AI cameras” in all the equipment and vehicles to watch our every move and record. It will talk to you, sound a siren and vibrate the seat if your eyes close…
Or tattletale on you if you don’t look forward enough or are looking down at a cell phone. Heaven help you if you answer the phone and put it to your ear or take a picture!
I’ve gone back to listening to books, I hate the technology watching me… But it could be worse, in the future it will be taking my job. It’s already doing my job in Australia.
It has me thinking about retiring soon, I dropped by a Social Security office building out of curiosity and there wasn’t more than five people in the waiting room out of 50 that spoke English. I ask the guard at the security desk about it and he said people come here from all over the world and get issued SSN numbers and file for Social Security, then return to their homeland with a forwarding address. It used to be the anchor babies born here with the lawyer to do the paperwork, (The lawyer gets a percentage of the amount ) the Biden administration opened it to anyone. He said you wouldn’t believe how many non-citizens, including young men with the fake or forged doctors note, are getting disability!
They’re not allowed to refuse anybody.
On a completely tangential note…. I recently flew an early evening flight from the UK to Germany ( the first leg of returning to Sweden) and witnessed the full moon , hanging in the pink twilight over a sea of cloud tops. Genuinely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever been privileged to see. Even the flight stuard was stunned when I pointed it out to him.
Nature has a knack for throwing the occasional curve ball and reminding us how small we are and how wonderful the universe really is.
Firefly finally shows us what the Apollo astronauts saw (apart from stills.)
The primitive cameras of the era gave everything a milky cast.