Transcript Lies, I tell you!

LIES, I TELL YOU, LIES!
OR: THINGS ARE NOT QUITE WHAT THEY SEEM
SURELY THE
EARTH IS
FLAT!
SURELY THE
EARTH IS
FLAT!
THE MOON ILLUSION
Moon is actually slightly
larger at zenith, as it is
closer to observer
Not to scale. (Bob King)
Unrelated to Moon illusion:
Some full moons are bigger than others, as
moon is closer to us in its elliptical orbit
EXPLANATORY DIAGRAMS
but…
MODELS OF CELESTIAL RELATIONSHIPS
MODELS OF CELESTIAL
RELATIONSHIPS
The sizes and distances of the planets on a scale of 1 cm to 5000 km.
Planet
Approx.
diameter/km
Approx.
model
diameter/cm
Representative
fruit
Mercury
5 000
1
redcurrant
Approx.
distance
from
Sun/million
km
58
Venus
12 000
2.4
cherry tomato
108
216
Earth
Mars
13 000
7 000
2.6
1.4
cherry tomato
blueberry
150
228
300
456
Jupiter
140 000
28
water melon
778
1600
Saturn
120 000
24
pumpkin
1430
2900
Uranus
51 000
10
orange
2870
5700
Neptune
49 000
9.8
orange
4500
9000
Approx.
model
distance/m
Approx.
location, CLC
at centre
116
Victoria/Green
St. Barnabus
Church
IGA bus stop
Sharp Arena
soccer fields
near Champlain
middle Jacques
Cartier Bridge
chalet on Mt
Royal
L.H.-Lafontaine
tunnel
entrance
Diameter of the sun is approx 1.4 million km or 280 cm / 9 feet on our scale
model.
The data in Table are for a model on a scale of 1 cm to 5000 km. How much bigger is the real Solar System than the
model?
PLANETS
TO SCALE
PLANETS
TO SCALE
PLANETS
TO SCALE
PHOTOMANIPULATION
Left: A raw FITS image. Right: The same image with brightness and contrast enhanced
PHOTOMANIPULATION
A reverse view of Saturn, made by combining 165 images, revealed additional, fainter rings around the planet.
(NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)
PANCHROMATIC CAPTURE
Often the resulting image doesn’t
accurately represent the real colors
of the night, and often this is done
intentionally. It’s sometimes
referred to as the National
Geographic effect.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EFFECT
Left: The Great Red Spot as seen in National Geographic. Right: A more
accurate color image produced with the same data. Credit: NASA/JPL
FALSE COLOR
Top Row (left to right): The Crab
Nebula at radio, infrared and
visible wavelengths.
Bottom Row (left to right):
ultraviolet, x-ray, and a falsecolor composition of the full
range.
Tweaking for information.
FALSE COLOR
Ring Nebula through a telescope eyepiece, at left,
Advanced telescope and camera (the Isaac Newton Telescope’s Wide Field Camera) — with advanced
processing, multiwavelength views, spectroscopic data and the contrast turned way up — sees at right.
OBSERVATIONAL BIAS
>1000 nearby galaxies
Central ‘void’ due to Milky Way
in the way
Bands of galaxies due to
telescope tracking lines
SKYWATCH
ecliptic
COULD YOU PASS ASTRONOMY 101? TAKE THE QUIZ!
BY LIZ FULLER-WRIGHT, CORRESPONDENT AUGUST 28, 2013