There is a spreading shadow on the edge of each crater on the near-Earth side of the moon, presenting the “Mazi face” bound by the gravity of the earth with unprecedented high definition.
In April this year, photographer Andrew McCarthy released this shocking photo. He pointed out that the high-definition effect of the image has reached an unprecedented level for a simple reason: this moon image is actually “impossible to shoot acquired”.
McCarthy said: “From this perspective, the moon may be a little weird because it is not directly captured by the camera. I took a large number of moon images and selected the most contrasting one. The image parts are pieced together to present the rich texture of the entire lunar surface. ”
The area of the high contrast difference he refers to is called the “Lunar Terminator”. This is actually an elongated line of sand on the surface of the moon, or a weathering layer, which is the dark and bright boundary between the near-ground side of the moon. The light and dark boundary line moves continuously according to the phase of the moon. As the moon enters and exits the shadow area of the earth, new parts of the lunar surface are displayed or hidden every day, because the “moon terminator” boundary line strengthens the contrast between the light and dark sides of the moon It looks more extended, and the shadow of the crater near the “Moon Terminator” boundary is more obvious.
McCarthy pointed his camera at the crater near the boundary between the bright and dark sides of the moon every night, and continued to observe and shoot for two weeks until the end of the lunar period, and the entire surface of the moon gradually brightened. At the time of the full moon, he also took a series of high-contrast, high-resolution photos of craters on the surface of the moon.
He pointed out that it is “exhausting” to combine these images into a single image, but the resulting moon image presents an unprecedented detailed structure. The image is called “Extreme Terminator Moon”.
This impossible-to-synthesize image cannot be regarded as a real moon photo, and there are more craters on the image than on the actual surface.