acceptance
Well-known member
The first color image of the full Earth from the Department of Defense "Gravity Experiment" satellite.
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VonBonfire
Well-known member
Which Atari game is this from and why is the earth riding on a red beach ball and why is the top clipped?
acceptance
Well-known member
acceptance
Well-known member
Actually they took the Blue marble pic only 5 years after the atari one. Why are the colors (not to mention the shapes) different in every single picture?
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VonBonfire
Well-known member
It seems like all the high altitude pics all have artifacts in there common to wide angle lenses, like I filmed it with my Sony MV-1. And I notice it's always a perfect ball, never an "oblate spheroid" like thy say it is.
Monkey Man
Super Moderator
Well to be fair the deviation from a perfect sphere probably isn't enough to detect with the naked eye. 
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VonBonfire
Well-known member
They say that about everything though. "You can't see the oblate spheroid with the naked eye". "You can't see the curve until you are (disputed) feet above sea level". "You can't feel the earth spinning". Deny your senses and put faith in science. Kinda sounds like a religion tbh.Well to be fair the deviation from a perfect sphere probably isn't enough to detect with the naked eye.
Monkey Man
Super Moderator
Irrelevant.
You're not going to see a 1⁄298th bias (47km) in favour of the equatorial diameter as opposed to the polar one.
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VonBonfire
Well-known member
I've heard that but it's exactly what I mean though. Deny your senses, believe our data. You must use faith and trust in the science even though it runs counter to all that you can experience with your five senses. We are the gatekeepers and hold the key to all available knowledge of the universe. Plebes must trust what we say or we will ostracize them socially everywhere except rig-talk. I might believe them if it was all data and science without the healthy dose of mockery for anyone expressing even mild skepticism.
acceptance
Well-known member
If you step back a bit though, you realize that the net effect is the same as a religion in that you have to have faith, even though the explanations are scientific and rational. If you acknowledge at least that much I'm satisfied.
Monkey Man
Super Moderator
Hey, I wasn't weighing into the argument brother; just stating the accepted, scientifically-determined numbers 'cause Von said he couldn't see the spherical deviation.
Well of course he couldn't; nobody can (I'm guessing). One can't see what they're claiming in this instance and one isn't expected to.
It's different from the claims it's spherical and that one should be able to see that given enough altitude.
Well of course he couldn't; nobody can (I'm guessing). One can't see what they're claiming in this instance and one isn't expected to.
It's different from the claims it's spherical and that one should be able to see that given enough altitude.
311splawndude
Well-known member
Legit
Thumbpicker
Well-known member
Yes I would like to say it's a sphere but whenever I do some smart arse comes along and points out it's not a perfect sphere. I feel like slapping them with the back of my hand haha It's so close to a perfect sphere it's not funny really as you correctly pointed out.
Thumbpicker
Well-known member
Mind you I'd prefer people to quibble over how spherical it is to complete and utter berks that think it's flat ;-)
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VonBonfire
Well-known member
Why is someone a smart ass for pointing out it's supposed actual shape?
Thumbpicker
Well-known member
Because no real life object is a perfect sphere if you want to get right down to atomic level is it. For all intents and purposes it's a sphere and no-one would perceive it otherwise however technically it's spheroidal. To a lay person it's sphere therefore if you want to be a smart arse correct someone who says it's a sphere and call it spheroidal.
Another example. Would you call a basketball a spherical object because I'm pretty damn sure it'd deviate more from a perfect sphere than the Earth.
Monkey Man
Super Moderator
Correct weight.
Rough calculation in my head suggests we're talking around about a 0.3% deviation.
acceptance
Well-known member
Except for Atari flat top... And that other one kind of looks like a pear.
311splawndude
Well-known member
Different colors don't bother me. I would think that would be expected actually. Cameras and filters etc are different. It also wouldn't surprise me if they had to overlap and cut paste photos
acceptance
Well-known member
They do apparently. I don't know why, but some or many (Or all) are composites. My problem with the pictures — other than they look fake — is that the range is soooo limited. We are always presented with some type of blue ball (no pun intended) and black background. With rare exception, such as the shots from the moon, they are always the same type of shot, apparently from the same distance. I would imagine that the various conditions would create some variety depending on the sun, distance, other planets, etc.
Here is the earth supposedly from the farthest it's ever been viewed — Voyager 1 in 1990. Amazing how my wifi fades in the sunroom but they can get a picture from more than 3.7 billion miles away. Can you see the earth? What are the stripes? Why isn't it all black like the others? Why don't the have sequentially distanced pics?
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