That picture looks very fishy to me. The colours and detail of the grass and tree indicate a picture taken in daylight, whereas at the top stars are visible, which would not be the case in daylight. I think this a montage, not a real photograph.
NASA would be fairly reliable? It was their photo of the day.
I thought so too, but I was too polite to say anything.
Ah yes, that accounts for it. But a bit of a swizz for NASA to choose it as photo of the day when it is no such thing. I sometimes wonder about NASA these days. I've a feeling their public relations team is in danger of damaging the scientific credibility of the organisation. Too much sensationalism.
I think the point of APOD is not be some "bastion of hard science"; it is meant to inspire. That can't really be done effectively with clinically clean data; it needs to be story-telling.
But you will see Pinball took it to be genuine. So there is a risk others will as well, leading to possible misunderstandings about when and where you may expect to see red sprites.
I do agree about the BLOODY music! The whole idea with documentaries, especially on science, is to be as objective as possible, something that is made virtually impossible by tendentious sound effects, designed to induce in viewers or listeners a particular state of mind. I've stopped listening to most BBC radio documentaries now, because they've started putting on background music almost all the time. It's really distracting on radio, when you are trying to hear somebody speaking, and I hate the way it is subliminally trying to tell you what to think, about what is being described or said.
Disappointed about that, this is NASA who are supposed to the beacon of science and technology.
That’s how I thought you might feel.
Agreed.
I never felt that APOD was meant to be hard data. It's always seemed to me to be a pop PR thing - a public reach out. So I don't l see this as in any way disingenuous.
I want a proper image from NASA no touch ups or composites, I have paint I can do that myself.
Yeah, sometimes you can't even clearly hear the person speak because of the irritating music. It's even worse when the music is mean to impart fear where there really should be none.
Steady on, MR will think the red jellyfish is an alien.
That’s what annoys me. Especially on radio, when the spoken voice is the only thing imparting information. Background music is a real distraction. And adds to the cost and complexity of production, I would have thought.
