NavList:

I wrote a few days ago:
"There are clearly some "issues" with this moon photo, which is surprising in an otherwise scientifically-themed film. How many problems can you find? You should know that the movie informs us, just a few seconds before we see this image, that it is "six days" until full moon."

I left it open in case anyone wanted to take a guess at the name of the film. Since there were no takers, I'll fill you in. The "scientifically-themed" film was "Splash". It was about a mermaid... Here's a photo of the mermaid after she has emerged onto land (NSFW in some cases).

The Moon image was presumably taken from some stock photo catalog since it appeared in many other places in various media for a few decades. Back in 2006 I pointed out in a NavList message that the same image was used as the "Weather Channel" Moon to indicate a night with clear skies, and I noted back then that it was "Wrong". In the images in the movie, this same Moon photo is mirrored (maybe from back projection when the effect was generated). So that's one: it's a mirror image of the Moon. Next there's the issue that I brought up nearly nine years ago: this Moon image shows the Moon as it can never be seen from Earth. Antoine alluded to this by saying that it appeared to be an excessive "libration". Yes indeed, this is how the Moon looks from a spacecraft flying about Mare Crisium. In fact this photo was taken by one of the Apollo spacecraft departing the Moon and roughly half of the image shows the Moon's far side, never visible from Earth at all. Next, the phase was generated by a circular cut-out, making the Moon look like a lemon in the first image. And of course if it's six days until full moon, then the Moon should be about 60% full, looking not much different from a half moon. Amazingly enough, as the movie progresses, the art team adjusted the pseuod-phase making it steadily "fuller". At least they tried! Also from NYC, facing towards the southwest, a waxing moon would be bright on the right, not the left. Oh and it's upside down: the Moon's north pole is down. The altitude and azimuth and angular size are wrong, too, but we wouldn't want to nitpick, right?

Frank Reed
Conanicut Island USA

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