What’s wrong with this picture?

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What’s wrong with this picture?

April 8, 2011 bobmoler

I received this in an email. The picture’s pretty but is it real? If not, what’s wrong? Answer in the comments.

Sunset at the North Pole. This is one of the rarest picture that you may

ever see in your life when the moon was closest to the earth. The date: Jan 13, 2011.

This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point last week. a scene you will probably never get to see in person, so take a moment and enjoy God at work at the North Pole. And, you also see the sun below the moon, an amazing photo and not one easily duplicated. You may want to pass it on to others so they can enjoy it. The Chinese have a saying that goes something like this: 'When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others!'

I found at least 4 things wrong. Can you find more?

Categories: Bad Astronomy, Seasons, Sun, The Moon Tags: Bad Astronomy, Photoshop

Comments (12)

Johnny Wolfe

April 8, 2011 at 9:21 pm

OK, I’m not even into astronomy but, my first thaught when I saw this beautiful image was: how is this possible. I always understood that the earth blocking the light from the sun caused the phases of the moon. So in this picture the sun and moon are above the north pole horizon therefore the earth could not be causing the shadow and we should have a picture with a full moon. Not 4 but,How’s that?
- bobmoler
  
  April 8, 2011 at 10:12 pm
  
  Hi Johnny,
  
  Sorry, the earth casts its shadow on the moon during the occasional lunar eclipse only. Otherwise the moon appears as a ball in the sunlight. That is the sun shines on half of it. When the moon is near the direction of the sun, we see mostly it’s night side, hence the crescent. The moon’s phase in the image isn’t the problem, though it should be a bit thinner.
  
  A neat way to prove the moon’s phase is just the sunlight falling on the moon is to go out when the moon is visible in the daytime and hold up a white ball so it appears next to the moon. Of course you’ll have to be in sunlight too. You will see that the ball has the same phase as the moon. Of course the shadowed part of your ball will be illuminated by all the stuff around you reflecting back.
Stephen

April 12, 2011 at 5:43 am

It depends on how you count them:

The sun being up at all at the North Pole on 13 January.

Mountains at the North Pole.

The Moon suddenly being 10 times closer to the Earth than last time I looked (or having grown 10-fold).

I’m very worried about the impact on the tides and the vast numbers of earthquakes likely to follow. Geostationary satellites would now be orbiting beyond the Moon which doesn’t sound good for the Earth’s communications systems (or the stability of the satellites’ orbits).

Liquid water at the North Pole in mid-winter is probably still remarkable for a few decades yet.
- bobmoler
  
  April 18, 2011 at 9:10 pm
  
  great answer!
Laura

April 16, 2011 at 10:01 am

It seems to me if the moon was so close, you would be able to see some craters.
- bobmoler
  April 18, 2011 at 9:08 pm
  You’re right.
  
  It’s been a week, so here’re my problems with this purported image from the north pole:
  
  January 13th is nearly the middle of winter. The sun won’t rise at the north pole until March 20th.
  
  There’s no land mass anywhere near the north pole. Sorry Santa.
  
  While global warming is heating up. There is still no open water at the north pole in January. Maybe not even in summer.
  
  The moon, even at its closest is can only be a little larger than the sun. You wouldn’t notice the the difference without careful measurement.
  
  The moon can only appear directly above or below the sun in the tropics.
  
  I suspect this is a piece of astronomical art of some alien world.
RT

May 3, 2011 at 1:45 am

http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/northpole.asp
- bobmoler
  
  May 3, 2011 at 8:16 pm
  
  Great find! Thanks.
dave

July 18, 2011 at 1:45 am

the picture is one of a series of paintings by Ingrid Neilson (spelling) she has reused the moons several times.
- bobmoler
  
  July 19, 2011 at 10:25 pm
  
  Thanks, I’ll check that out.
Jeff from Hobart

September 1, 2011 at 2:23 am

Just to underline dave’s comments:

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/north-pole-moon.html

This beautiful image circulates via email and is often posted to online forums and blogs. The image, along with various descriptions, has been circulating since 2006. Although it is certainly a breathtaking picture it is a work of art, not a photograph.

The image is in fact a work by artist Inga Nielsen. The image, called “Hideaway” can be viewed on the artist’s website.

The image was created using a scenery generator program called Terragen™

“Hideaway” was also featured as the NASA’S Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for the 20th June 2006. Soon after the first version of message began circulating, Inga Nielsen published a news update about how the artwork gained its urban legend status. According to the artist, someone “cut out my name, called the image “Sunset at the north pole” and told everyone it was a photograph.”
J Melms

November 16, 2011 at 10:03 am

Selling communism with a pretty picture.