Recent comments in /f/space

CFCYYZ t1_j893923 wrote

Reply to In this rare image taken on July 19, 2013, the wide-angle camera on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured Saturn’s rings and our planet Earth and its moon in the same frame. (NASA/JPL) by Rifletree

>It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building
experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of
human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it
underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and
to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever
known.

- Carl Sagan Full text

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BrotherZesty t1_j88vivs wrote

Reply to Stereoscopic motion parallax of the Moon passing between L1 and the Earth by EmergeHolographic

This is really cool and very very well done! Good job :) It is usually very hard to get everything right with a stereogram like this, typically there are some doubled edges as a result of imperfections in the lateral separation of the capture locations, but I can't see any in these.

You mentioned that the moon looks closer to the earth than it actually is, and that's an interesting point to make. Typically our visual system is able to calibrate horizontal disparity information based on familiar objects/depth intervals. This is known as stereoscopic depth constancy. When dealing with huge objects and huge distances (such as those featured here) it is inevitable that some distortions will occur. These sorts of stereograms are also subject to what is known as the "cardboard cutout phenomenon" which is why the moon itself appears somewhat flat while there is a very clear depth interval between the moon and the earth.

Sorry for the essay, I just finished my phd on stereoscopic depth constancy processes and wanted to nerd out for a little in the oddly specific field i chose haha. Keep up the good work!

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