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Old 04-October-2005, 02:04 AM
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Maksutov Maksutov is offline
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Default Re: Quick assistance - Cassini and Moon hoaxes

Quote:
Originally Posted by nebularain
[edit]The Cassini hoaxer mentioned the background stars not being visible (he bet he could recreate the newly released Saturnian moon photo at home).

I know the background stars things has to do with lighting - but I'm not sure how to explain that with regards to the photo of this moon...
You should suggest he read a book on basic photography and pay close attention to the sensitivity ranges of various emulsions. Then point out that the same considerations apply to CCDs, i.e., when set re aperture (f stop) and exposure time to record details in bright areas, details in dark areas (such as space) will be lost. It would be very easy to take pictures of stars using Cassini's cameras, but that's not what we sent it to Saturn for!

All those incredibly detailed photographs of the moons, the rings, and Saturn itself are part of the mission objectives. BTW, if you wish, feel free to mention you got this information from someone who helped build Cassini. Of course if your friend is into conspiracies, I guess that would make me yet another government-paid disinformation agent. Oh well...

Nevertheless, there is no "Cassini hoax", it's all very real.
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