Debunking Flat Earth Misconceptions
At the longest zoom, the Nikon P1000 has a field of view of 0.2°, which is equivalent to 1342 km at the Moon’s distance.
Flat-Earthers zoomed their Nikon P1000 at the Moon and claimed that they could not find flags and landers from the Apollo missions. In reality, the smallest objects on the lunar surface they can observe using their cameras are large city-sized objects.
Flat-Earthers claim that moonlight is cold and cools down objects exposed to it. It is merely a myth from the 19th-century flat-Earthers, reinforced by confirmation bias in various so-called “experiments” performed by today’s flat-Earthers.
Flat-Earthers experimented and insisted that moonlight has a cooling effect because they failed to control other factors affecting the experiment and maybe even deliberately introduced them to influence the results. They also did not account for measurement errors —the variation between several measurements— and cherry-picked the results that fit their desired outcome while ignoring the rest.
Earth seen from the Moon will appear 3.7× larger than the Moon seen from Earth. However, if a photograph of Earth is compared to that of the Moon, the sizes of both objects also depend on the field of view of the cameras that were used to capture them.
Flat-Earthers discovered the size of the Earth in a photograph is not 3.7× the Moon in another picture. They used the fact as “evidence” of wrongdoing. In reality, the two photos were not taken with the same field of view, and cannot be compared directly.
Continue reading “Earth Seen From the Moon vs the Moon Seen From Earth”
A selenelion is a rare lunar eclipse where the Sun and the Moon are both visible at the same time. An even rarer form of selenelion occurs if it is a partial lunar eclipse, and the upper part of the Moon is eclipsed. Some call this an “impossible eclipse.”
Flat-Earthers claim that such an eclipse should not be possible to occur because the Earth’s shadow is in the wrong position. In reality, it is possible to happen because the observer is looking slightly downward due to the dip of the horizon and atmospheric refraction.
After the Apollo moon landings, we continue launching missions to the moon, but with uncrewed spacecraft. The Apollo program was not entirely a scientific mission. It also served as a political mission due to the Cold War. We can research a lot of things about the moon without risking human lives by sending them to the moon.
Flat-Earthers claim that there have not been any missions to the moon after the Apollo missions, and they conclude that the Apollo missions were fabricated. In reality, we continue sending spacecraft to the moon to this day.
Angular resolution is the minimum separation between distinguishable features in an image. Objects smaller than the angular resolution are indiscernible in the picture. The theoretical maximum angular resolution is determined by the diameter of the aperture of the optical instrument.
Flat-Earthers like to demand images of the lunar landers taken with a telescope as proof that the Apollo Moon landings did occur. In reality, no optical telescope on Earth is large enough to resolve the landers.
Some people are confused that the crescent moon can be visible at night, even though during the time, the Moon is closer to the Sun than Earth, and the part of the Earth is facing away from the Sun.
Many flat-Earthers have the same visualization difficulties, but they take it a step further and use it as ‘evidence’ as a ‘failure’ of science to explain the fact. In reality, the phenomenon can be readily explained in the spherical Earth model.
Stars are not visible in photos of the Moon –including those taken from the lunar surface— because the Moon is sunlit. The exposure needed to take a photograph of the Moon is not that much different from that used to take a photo in daylight on Earth’s surface.
To demonstrate this, we can try taking a picture of the Moon with stars visible, on the conditions: 1. The lunar features, like the craters, are correctly exposed, not overexposed. 2. Taken in a single exposure, not HDR, and not the result of editing. Even if we are using the best camera available today, the stars can’t show up in large enough quantity.
Everyone on Earth observes the same face and phase of the Moon at the same time, provided the Moon is visible from the location of the observer. This fact is contrary to what the flat Earth model requires. It rules out the possibility of a flat-Earth and that the Moon is a sphere hovering a few thousand miles above Earth’s surface.
Continue reading “The Appearance of the Moon on the Different Locations on Earth”
It can be surprising that many people believe that the lunar phase is caused by the Earth casting its shadow on the surface of the Moon. Flat-Earthers are no exception. But they take it one step further and use the misconception do “disprove” the fact that Earth is a sphere. They are wrong. The lunar phase is the shape of the sunlit part of the Moon seen from the observer.
On the other hand, the phenomenon where the Earth casting its shadow on the surface of the Moon is called the lunar eclipse. Moon phase occurs all the time and undergoes a monthly cycle, while a lunar eclipse happens only a couple times in a year.
Continue reading “Lunar Phase: Earth’s Shadow has Nothing to do with It”
How an object appears in a photograph depends on perspective —the position of the camera relative to the object—, and field of view of the camera. The farther the object, the smaller the object will appear in the resulting image; and conversely, the closer the object, the larger it will appear. The narrower the field of view, the larger the object will appear in the image; and conversely the wider the field of view, the smaller the object will appear.
Flat-Earthers take the varying proportions of the Earth & Moon in different pictures as a glaring inconsistency. They are wrong. The pictures were simply taken from a different perspective and field of view.
Continue reading “The Varying Earth-Moon Proportions in Different Pictures”
The apparent size of the Moon remains constant in a single day. This can only happen if the Moon is practically at the same distance all day.
In the flat-Earth model, the Moon is thought to be moving in a circle above the flat Earth. Such a notion should cause the Moon apparent size to vary in a day. However, in reality, the Moon appears in the same size all day, and it proves that the flat-Earth model does not represent reality and that the Moon is much farther.
China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft has successfully landed on the Moon. It is the first ever spacecraft to land on the far side of the Moon.
Unfortunately, some news outlets used the term “dark side of the Moon” which is inaccurate. The side of the Moon where Chang’e 4 landed is not always dark, but instead always facing away from the Earth. That part of the Moon has the same day and night cycle like the side that is facing us and is not always dark.
Flat-Earthers were confused that the spacecraft use solar panels. If the side of the Moon is always dark, then it should be pointless to use solar panels. They took these facts as “proof” of some sort of misconduct. They were simply confused about the term some news outlets were using. The correct term is “far side of the Moon.”
Continue reading “Chang’e 4 and the Confusion About the Dark Side vs Far Side of the Moon”
The Tycho Crater is a crater on the Moon having the diameter of 85 km (53 miles). It is too small to recognize using the naked eye. However, it lies on a bright colored highland that can be mistaken as the crater itself. The crater also has an extensive ray system, which was from the ejected materials when the crater was formed.
Flat-Earthers claimed the visibility of the Tycho Crater proves the Moon is not that far. They are wrong. We cannot see the Tycho Crater using the naked eye. What is visible is the highland it lies on or its extensive ray system.
Generally, sunlit objects are far brighter than any stars. It is the reason stars are not visible in a lot of photographs showing sunlit objects unless the objects are overexposed and made much brighter than the correct exposure.
Flat-Earthers take the lack of stars in photographs as evidence of misconduct. They are wrong. If the primary object in the picture is sunlit, then in most cases, stars will not be visible.
On Earth, daylight sky is glowing in bright blue due to Rayleigh scattering. Sunlight is scattered in every direction by the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in Earth’s atmosphere.
Such the phenomenon does not happen on the Moon, causing the dark sky of the Moon. Flat-Earthers claim that the dark sky of the Moon captured by photos and videos taken from the Moon are “proof” there is misconduct. They are wrong. Just because Earth’s sky is bright blue, it does not mean it will be like that on the Moon and other planets.
The Moon is tidally locked. Half of the Moon is always facing the Earth. However, due to libration, we can take a glimpse of areas of the moon that are not always visible.
Flat-Earthers invented many “scenarios” to “explain” how the so many lunar-related phenomena can happen on the flat Earth model. Some of these “explanations” include “transparent Moon”, “hemisphere-shaped Moon”, “flat circular Moon”, etc. Lunar libration rules out the majority, if not all, of these “explanations.”
At any time, the Sun illuminates one half of the Moon and the other half dark. The phase of the Moon is the shape of the sunlit portion of the Moon as viewed by observers on Earth.
The phase of the Moon can never be adequately explained using the flat Earth model. To deal with this inconsistency in their theory, some perpetrators of flat Earth invented an ‘explanation’ that the phase of the Moon is not caused by sunlight. They are wrong. We can observe the Moon very carefully using telescopes of high-zoom cameras, and it will be evident how the lunar craters are lit. And this can only happen if the Moon is sunlit.
The Moon looks practically identical from everywhere on Earth because the Moon is very far relative to the distance between observers on Earth. However, its orientation is different when observed from the various locations across the globe. The reason is that the Earth is a sphere: the different observers are not on the same plane and have the different orientations themselves.
Some Flat-Earthers have spatial awareness difficulties and present the difference of the orientation of the moon as ‘evidence’ of a flat Earth. They are wrong. If in their model the Moon is close, we should be able to see the different face of the moon on the different location on Earth. But we clearly don’t.
Any diagram showing two or more celestial bodies is almost never drawn in the correct scale. The reason is that in most cases, any two celestial bodies are spaced too far away relative to their sizes. It is just not possible to draw them in the correct scale and still effectively describes what we want to explain. We don’t have much choice other than drawing them not to scale.
The perpetrators of flat-Earth disseminate the allegations that the diagrams were drawn not to scale because of evil intentions, and not because of legitimate technical reasons. Some people don’t understand this and fell victim to flat-Earth indoctrination.
