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Horray! Also: - Wow but the moon is 3D. Like, when we see shots of Earth, the ground always looks so flat, but the depth of the craters and the heights of the

Horray! Also: - Wow but the moon is 3D. Like, when we see shots of Earth, the ground always looks so flat, but the depth of the craters and the heights of the ridges is really, really amazing to see - ...KSP did a really good job mimicking the real thing

theoreticalmal 2y ago
insert flat-moon comment here
- tiahura 2y ago
  Why are the interiors of the craters uniformly deep?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - samstave 2y ago
    I was wondering that as well as the crater edges look smoothed... Billions of years of Space Dust? (Obviously a fresh impact crater would be starkly different, but if its craters are all from after it was formed, and then was still being inundated with a cloud of micro hits - and then the cloud of all the dust that was left from all the collisions turned to that powder, and finally settled over the surface.
  - lstodd 2y ago
    because rock behaves like liquid at the time of impact.
    - tiahura 2y ago
      it seems like craters of different side are roughly the same depth.
      - lstodd 2y ago
        yes, about the same as when you idly throw small stones into the water
cryptoz 2y ago
One of the coolest things ever is you can see the shadows and depths of the craters on the moon from here on Earth, with a cheap ~$15 telescope or probably binoculars too. I remember buying the galileoscope for $15 many years ago and was absolutely shocked how cool the moon looked, and how 3D. Pro-tip: the full moon isn't so fun to look at, you want some level of crescent moon so you can avoid getting overloaded on the brightness. (You can also stay up for a few hours and actually observe Io revolving around Jupiter, I think it takes most of the night to get 1/4 of the way around. Pretty obvious revolutions when you keep observing throughout the night.)
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
nerdponx 2y ago
I noticed this too. Something about the perspective is unnerving, like an amusement park ride. You can see clearly that the moon is small, the craters are big, and the orbiting spacecraft is moving really really fast, all at the same time. None of that is apparent from video of low Earth orbit. And then the stark lighting makes it feel even more bizarre and alien.
- consumer451 2y ago
  The most 3-D experience that I have had with the moon, on the cheap, is when its not in it's full phase. With a cheap telescope, when you observe the edge of the partial-phase moon's crescent, you see the "terminator." It suddenly feels so different, finally you see the moon's bumpy spherical nature. It's like you are flying just above it. > The terminator is where you'll see the most pronounced shadows cast by the lunar features like craters, mountains, and valleys. This is because the Sun is at a low angle relative to the lunar surface, emphasizing the topography and allowing you to see craters and other features in sharp relief
  - kubanczyk 2y ago
    True, true. And binoculars work twice as good, provided there's some support for them.
NitpickLawyer 2y ago
> - ...KSP did a really good job mimicking the real thing The pic with the shadow of the lander is really close to what you get out of KSP when you first land on Mun or Minmus. Really really cool. Congrats to everyone who made this happen!
- moffkalast 2y ago
  Interesting how Luna has more of a Minmus feel in terms of scale, the horizon is so close. Something to do with the wide angle lens I imagine?
  - lstodd 2y ago
    Selena is just small.
jccooper 2y ago
Much smaller, no atmosphere. You can get a lot closer to it in orbit. Until Apollo 14, the LM would enter a 50,000 ft periapsis on the way to landing. Dunno the exact phasing of this lander, but that video could be from a similar height (or lower, if you have good navigation.)
TeMPOraL 2y ago
> ...KSP did a really good job mimicking the real thing Yes. That flyby video looks almost like taken straight from KSP - the only thing that made my mind stop feeling like I'm watching a Mun landing, was the light reflecting off the metallic surfaces of the actual lander - it looked too computationally expensive for a videogame.

theoreticalmal 2y ago

insert flat-moon comment here

tiahura 2y ago
Why are the interiors of the craters uniformly deep?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- samstave 2y ago
  I was wondering that as well as the crater edges look smoothed... Billions of years of Space Dust? (Obviously a fresh impact crater would be starkly different, but if its craters are all from after it was formed, and then was still being inundated with a cloud of micro hits - and then the cloud of all the dust that was left from all the collisions turned to that powder, and finally settled over the surface.
- lstodd 2y ago
  because rock behaves like liquid at the time of impact.
  - tiahura 2y ago
    it seems like craters of different side are roughly the same depth.
    - lstodd 2y ago
      yes, about the same as when you idly throw small stones into the water

cryptoz 2y ago

One of the coolest things ever is you can see the shadows and depths of the craters on the moon from here on Earth, with a cheap ~$15 telescope or probably binoculars too. I remember buying the galileoscope for $15 many years ago and was absolutely shocked how cool the moon looked, and how 3D. Pro-tip: the full moon isn't so fun to look at, you want some level of crescent moon so you can avoid getting overloaded on the brightness. (You can also stay up for a few hours and actually observe Io revolving around Jupiter, I think it takes most of the night to get 1/4 of the way around. Pretty obvious revolutions when you keep observing throughout the night.)

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

nerdponx 2y ago

I noticed this too. Something about the perspective is unnerving, like an amusement park ride. You can see clearly that the moon is small, the craters are big, and the orbiting spacecraft is moving really really fast, all at the same time. None of that is apparent from video of low Earth orbit. And then the stark lighting makes it feel even more bizarre and alien.

consumer451 2y ago
The most 3-D experience that I have had with the moon, on the cheap, is when its not in it's full phase. With a cheap telescope, when you observe the edge of the partial-phase moon's crescent, you see the "terminator." It suddenly feels so different, finally you see the moon's bumpy spherical nature. It's like you are flying just above it. > The terminator is where you'll see the most pronounced shadows cast by the lunar features like craters, mountains, and valleys. This is because the Sun is at a low angle relative to the lunar surface, emphasizing the topography and allowing you to see craters and other features in sharp relief
- kubanczyk 2y ago
  True, true. And binoculars work twice as good, provided there's some support for them.

NitpickLawyer 2y ago

> - ...KSP did a really good job mimicking the real thing The pic with the shadow of the lander is really close to what you get out of KSP when you first land on Mun or Minmus. Really really cool. Congrats to everyone who made this happen!

moffkalast 2y ago
Interesting how Luna has more of a Minmus feel in terms of scale, the horizon is so close. Something to do with the wide angle lens I imagine?
- lstodd 2y ago
  Selena is just small.

jccooper 2y ago

Much smaller, no atmosphere. You can get a lot closer to it in orbit. Until Apollo 14, the LM would enter a 50,000 ft periapsis on the way to landing. Dunno the exact phasing of this lander, but that video could be from a similar height (or lower, if you have good navigation.)

TeMPOraL 2y ago

> ...KSP did a really good job mimicking the real thing Yes. That flyby video looks almost like taken straight from KSP - the only thing that made my mind stop feeling like I'm watching a Mun landing, was the light reflecting off the metallic surfaces of the actual lander - it looked too computationally expensive for a videogame.