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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.