r/Physics • u/PaulJimoxkl • 1d ago
Image Astronaut appears to cast a shadow on space. It doesn't seem like a camera flare. What is the explanation for the phenomenon?
Source : "ALSJ Apollo 14 Tape-01-1" on YouTube.
Timestamp: 10:05
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u/Fmeson 1d ago
Can you explain what we are looking at? It just looks like there was something near to the lens, which is not odd, but perhaps I am missing something
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u/PaulJimoxkl 1d ago
The astronaut is blocking the light and what he's doing seems to be projected on space.
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u/Fmeson 1d ago
I don't think the astronaut is casting a shadow at all. It looks to me like what a video camera sees when I'm cleaning the lens.
Do you see how the "shadow" causes distortions near its edges? That's a classic effect of objects near a lens.
Idk, maybe I'm not seeing what you are seeing though.
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u/CortexAndCurses 1d ago
The reflection of light from the sun on earth is very bright. Lenses bend light and concentrate it, and it can reflect inside the camera causing lens flare. It’s not always coming straight into the lens it’s in more of a wide cone and then concentrating on whatever sensor or mirror.
The light coming from a very wide cone is causing the flare, even from the side of the lens the astronauts can block the light and in turn block the flare (without being in front of lens directly). The shadow (in a sense) is not behind the astronaut, it’s inside the camera, as the astronaut blocks the light… from the sun, reflecting off earth.
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u/The-Joon 1d ago
It is a reflection on the back side of a protective cover in front of the lens. You can see this as he reaches under it to access the camera/lens.
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u/Delicious-Feature334 1d ago
Why are yall downvoting this I think they genuinely want to know what caused it
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u/kendoka15 1d ago edited 1d ago
Might be because this kind of question is usually from a flat earther or moon landing conspiracy theorist. Their post history doesn't indicate anything so I wouldn't jump to that conclusion but some others might have. Might also be because the video is ridiculously low quality. Multiple people still answered though so upvotes/downvotes don't really matter
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u/RepeatRepeatR- Atmospheric physics 1d ago
It's a lens flare, of sorts, from the bright object beneath it, the camera is probably slightly misaligned. It goes away because the astronaut obscures part of the bright object