Skeptical about a 'picture'

[poway_mojo]

A friend sent me an email with a 'picture' of a sunset over the north pole. The 'picture' shows a pretty small Sun very near the horizon and a thin crescent Moon filling 1/4 of the sky. It also shows liquid water in the foreground. I have searched my favorite 'hoax' sites with no luck. I just cannot accept this picture as real. Has anyone around here seen this picture? It sure looks like a composite with a telescope view of the Moon.

 

[thalion]

I'd bet money that it's fake.<br /><br />Details of the horizon aside, the Sun in that picture is less than a quarter of a degree from the Moon's disk. That close, the Moon would be all but invisible--no crescent.

 

[kmarinas86]

The moon is not supposed to be titled that high at the north pole. The moon should be low on the horizon just like the sun.

 

[harmonicaman]

...and why isn't the Moon also reflected on the water?<br /><br />Very pretty composit though.

 

[vogon13]

No open water (yet) or mountains at the North Pole.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Don't know why nobody mentioned this before, but that cannot possibly be the Sun and the Moon together -- no matter how you compose the shot, if they're in the same frame they should be nearly or exactly the same apparent diameter. (Sometimes the Moon appears slightly smaller than the Sun due to its slightly elliptical orbit. The effect isn't obvious to the naked eye except during an annular solar eclipse, though; it's too small a difference to easily see.)<br /><br />It may be a composite of several photos, or it may be computer-generated; something about the water makes it look ray-traced to me. It is very beautiful, though. Perhaps the image was originally meant as an artist's conception of the view from an alien world? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[tplank]

Not to mention the water would not be liquid. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>The Disenfranchised Curmudgeon</p><p>http://tonyplank.blogspot.com/ </p> </div>