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PSA: That bright dot next to the moon in your phone photo is not a planet, and I finally know why
Last Tuesday I shot the moon with my phone on the porch in Boise, and a neighbor asked why there was a big glow beside it. That glow is lens flare from the glass, not Venus, and it shifts spots when you tilt the camera. I checked by holding my hand over the bright edge, and the second dot vanished right away. If you look at about 200 moon shots online, a bunch of them get labeled as planets when it is just internal reflection. Anyone else had someone swear they caught a planet, only to find out it was flare?
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samf9522d ago
Kept a bunch of my moon pics just to test this out. Not all bright dots next to the moon are flare though. Real planets sit in the same spot night after night, like Jupiter or Venus. Flare moves when you tilt the phone, sure, but a real one will show up again a week later in about the same place. Hand trick is solid for flare. But saying every dot is fake is going too far. Some folks really do catch a planet.
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