Starship Asterisk*

Why put a photo of the rings, taken in February, together with a background of Saturn taken in 2005? Very confusing, especially since it's pointed out that it could not look like it does in the picture.

Thank you very much! Very educational.
Lasse

... At the distance to the object, each pixel is subtending a 20,000 km area ... I don't understand this (but I hope I will if I get an explanation): In the tail 'each pixel' = '20,000 km' ? That would make the tail of this object billions of kilometers long. Not to mention the small nucleus itself...

Sometimes you have to do perspective adjustments to transition the photos together smoothly. That particular area of the picture could have some curved perspective. If you know how a fisheye lens curves things, what I'm thinking is a similar effect. Or it could have been on the far side of a wide a...

We see from your lightened picture that the second sun is an exact copy of the first, including the 'foot' at the bottom, due to the usual mirage in the atmosphere layer above the sea. The bright reflection in the sea under the first (the real) sun is also there of course. The cloud in front of the ...

Your sharp eyes seem to have offered a final answer to the problem: there certainly are faint reflections visible in the dark area of that photo, and of course there is a window in between. The photographer is advised to open the window the next time, before taking pictures of the sun. Case closed? ...

Differences between different pictures are easily explained by holding the camera in slightly different places in relation to the window. Individual window panes are not exactly plane - a very slight curvature in one pane creates varying angles and reflections. Ice clouds s flat and reflecting as wi...

Thank you woppledorf for pointing out the fact that the pillars are vrtual, and that the crystals could be anywhere! I am enclosing a photo taken a week ago on my balcony. You see a pillar of light below the sun. Small icy snow flakes form a pillar. Some are even in front of the balcony rail. To ccu...

In response to this question (quoted below), the simple answer would be that the two pillars that visibly show the trumpets, are also the brightest ones over the two brightest lamps. The fan or trumpet itself is not as bright as is the pillar below, so the phenomenon of fanning is therefore more eas...

There are many wild ideas presented in this discussion: newly found arcs, focusing of light beams, bending of light in air, refraction within crystals, diffusion in an in-between window, just an optical illusion, etc. - The basic explanation must be the one that pmanson gives. Horizontal ice crystal...

I don't think I buy the explanation: "This rainbow is likely caused by sunlight that has first reflected off the lake before striking the distant raindrops that is reflecting sunlight back toward the observer." The part of the lake that we see seems to be in shadow, so how could it reflect...

I think there should have been a link to some site with photos and explanations of the "Opposition effect". It is so obvious around the shadow of the astronaut (esp. where he holds his camera) in the lunar dust. Examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_effect and http://www.meteor...