Unusual Pic - Google Moon

[dazdillinjah]

I spotted an unusually perfect rectangular feature on Google Moon a few hours earlier. Its co-ordinates are 27o32'29.27 N - 147o30'33.06 E.

Was hoping Waspie may be able to help describe to me the feature I am looking at here ?

[ChrLzs]

While you wait for Waspie, I'll take a wild guess that it is jpeg compression blocking from a horribly over-enlarged image. Look at the many other edges in that image and note all the squared off edges.

To investigate this you should go back to the original imagery and look at the files uncompressed and at no greater than actual pixel-size.

I'm afraid I can't be bothered as I've seen this sort of thing way too many times. Google Moon is not intended for minute examination of images by zooming in this far...

Edited November 18, 2013 by ChrLzs

[ChrLzs]

Decided not to be so lazy - 5 minute visit to LRO 'Quickmap' site, zoomed in on that area, and here's a better view:

- in fact the original stuff is even better than that, but I stopped zooming at this level as I think the point is quite clear (pun intended) - do NOT use Google Moon if you want high resolution - go back to the source images.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

There is not really much I can add, Chrlz has done all the detective work.

[Frank Merton]

It's amazing how the craters present themselves to me as bumps.

[ChrLzs]

It's amazing how the craters present themselves to me as bumps.

You're not alone, same for me - I'm yet to meet anyone who doesn't have this problem, even those who work on the missions!! Sometimes it can help if you invert the image (top-bottom) or even left-right, but often it doesn't help. I just tried it on this one and nope...

The problem is a simple one - your brain almost NEVER sees these sort of shapes here on Earth, especially not when you are looking straight down, with the Sun illuminating it from a shallow angle... so your mind assumes it is a bump, like 99% of the similar things it has seen before here on terra firma.

There's a sorta related example that still freaks me out every time I see it:

[media=]

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Is that cool or what?

[Frank Merton]

I say to myself over and over, "The sun is to the right, not the left." Every now and then for a brief moment my brain gets it, but then it goes back as soon as I relax.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Possibly because I've spent so much time looking at images of the moon and planets I usually (but not always) see craters as craters.

Venus has some dome shaped structures and I have the opposite problem with them. When I look at the radar maps of these objects (made by NASA's Magellan spacecraft) I can not see them as dome shaped, to me they always look like craters.

[dazdillinjah]

Much Respects ChrLzs ..and Waspie ..I now know (seeming that's one of the few 'clearer parts' Google Moon offers) that this was able to be described, however I also now understand - the weakness of Google Moon. One would think there would be much better than what is offered in this respect

[ChrLzs]

Much Respects ChrLzs ..and Waspie ..I now know (seeming that's one of the few 'clearer parts' Google Moon offers) that this was able to be described, however I also now understand - the weakness of Google Moon. One would think there would be much better than what is offered in this respect

To be fair, Google Moon serves a purpose - it draws together low-resolution imagery from a number of sources, including NASA's LRO and other missions, Japan's Jaxa Selene, even ground based telescopes. And as I showed, there IS something better - the original soruces for these images are almost all free and public. It is a bit unreasonable for Google to offer a free service and store or keep up with the reams of new high resolution footage that is being transmitted back every day. And of course any given area is often imaged by different sources.. As in this case - the image you first posted is obviously not a version of the one I posted - it was taken at a different time, perhaps by a different spacecraft.

So it is up the budding researcher to understand what GM's limitations are, use it only as a starting point, and then go back to the sources of the data to see the 'real stuff' or invetsigate anomalies that, as in this case, often turn out to be compression or enlargement artefacts, errors in GM's stitching methods, optical or sensor problems/limitations (like the 'burnt' white areas above), or data transmission errors.

It's also worth noting that the raw data is often not gathered by these agencies at all! NASA and others often hive out the data collection to other agencies or universities and may even invite amateurs to get involved - in some cases, the data can be picked up by Joe Hobbyist using high end radio detection systems. So the imagery can be verified and cross-checked in many ways. The idea that any agency could or would cover up interesting anamolies is just silly - these agencies would love to find weird stuff or signs of life so they can get lots more funding, and if NASA doesn't release it, any of the many other agencies doing this sort of research and imaging will!

[Sundew]

You're not alone, same for me - I'm yet to meet anyone who doesn't have this problem, even those who work on the missions!! Sometimes it can help if you invert the image (top-bottom) or even left-right, but often it doesn't help. I just tried it on this one and nope...

The problem is a simple one - your brain almost NEVER sees these sort of shapes here on Earth, especially not when you are looking straight down, with the Sun illuminating it from a shallow angle... so your mind assumes it is a bump, like 99% of the similar things it has seen before here on terra firma.

There's a sorta related example that still freaks me out every time I see it:

[media=]

[/media]

Is that cool or what?

If you have ever been in Disney World's Haunted Mansion, there are busts of "ghosts" that they used the same illusion on the make it look as if their heads follow you as you move through the ride.