What kind of lens is used in this picture of Earth?

The name of the pictureThe name of the pictureThe name of the pictureClash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP











up vote
1
down vote

favorite












The photos in an answer to this question show the Earth s very small as seen form the moon. I suspect that the lens used doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon. Is there a way by looking or measuring a picture to determine what type of lens is used?



enter image description here










share|improve this question























  • Related: photo.stackexchange.com/questions/23414/…
    – flolilolilo
    3 hours ago






  • 1




    The Earth is 4 times bigger than the Moon. Seen from the moon it has the same angular size as the width of two fingers held at arm's length.
    – xenoid
    1 hour ago











  • @xenoid do you think the lensing effect of Earth atmosphere would make the moon appear bigger then if Earth had no atmosphere?
    – Muze
    1 hour ago










  • What "lensing effect"? Is there such a thing?
    – xenoid
    1 hour ago














up vote
1
down vote

favorite












The photos in an answer to this question show the Earth s very small as seen form the moon. I suspect that the lens used doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon. Is there a way by looking or measuring a picture to determine what type of lens is used?



enter image description here










share|improve this question























  • Related: photo.stackexchange.com/questions/23414/…
    – flolilolilo
    3 hours ago






  • 1




    The Earth is 4 times bigger than the Moon. Seen from the moon it has the same angular size as the width of two fingers held at arm's length.
    – xenoid
    1 hour ago











  • @xenoid do you think the lensing effect of Earth atmosphere would make the moon appear bigger then if Earth had no atmosphere?
    – Muze
    1 hour ago










  • What "lensing effect"? Is there such a thing?
    – xenoid
    1 hour ago












up vote
1
down vote

favorite









up vote
1
down vote

favorite











The photos in an answer to this question show the Earth s very small as seen form the moon. I suspect that the lens used doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon. Is there a way by looking or measuring a picture to determine what type of lens is used?



enter image description here










share|improve this question















The photos in an answer to this question show the Earth s very small as seen form the moon. I suspect that the lens used doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon. Is there a way by looking or measuring a picture to determine what type of lens is used?



enter image description here







lens






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 13 mins ago









Michael Clark

123k7140348




123k7140348










asked 3 hours ago









Muze

1304




1304











  • Related: photo.stackexchange.com/questions/23414/…
    – flolilolilo
    3 hours ago






  • 1




    The Earth is 4 times bigger than the Moon. Seen from the moon it has the same angular size as the width of two fingers held at arm's length.
    – xenoid
    1 hour ago











  • @xenoid do you think the lensing effect of Earth atmosphere would make the moon appear bigger then if Earth had no atmosphere?
    – Muze
    1 hour ago










  • What "lensing effect"? Is there such a thing?
    – xenoid
    1 hour ago
















  • Related: photo.stackexchange.com/questions/23414/…
    – flolilolilo
    3 hours ago






  • 1




    The Earth is 4 times bigger than the Moon. Seen from the moon it has the same angular size as the width of two fingers held at arm's length.
    – xenoid
    1 hour ago











  • @xenoid do you think the lensing effect of Earth atmosphere would make the moon appear bigger then if Earth had no atmosphere?
    – Muze
    1 hour ago










  • What "lensing effect"? Is there such a thing?
    – xenoid
    1 hour ago















Related: photo.stackexchange.com/questions/23414/…
– flolilolilo
3 hours ago




Related: photo.stackexchange.com/questions/23414/…
– flolilolilo
3 hours ago




1




1




The Earth is 4 times bigger than the Moon. Seen from the moon it has the same angular size as the width of two fingers held at arm's length.
– xenoid
1 hour ago





The Earth is 4 times bigger than the Moon. Seen from the moon it has the same angular size as the width of two fingers held at arm's length.
– xenoid
1 hour ago













@xenoid do you think the lensing effect of Earth atmosphere would make the moon appear bigger then if Earth had no atmosphere?
– Muze
1 hour ago




@xenoid do you think the lensing effect of Earth atmosphere would make the moon appear bigger then if Earth had no atmosphere?
– Muze
1 hour ago












What "lensing effect"? Is there such a thing?
– xenoid
1 hour ago




What "lensing effect"? Is there such a thing?
– xenoid
1 hour ago










2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
2
down vote



accepted










Your question is actually three questions. The first is simple and factual to answer; the second is based on possibly faulty assumptions; and the third has been asked before here.




Answering your first question, "What kind of lens is used in this picture of Earth?", from an answer to a different question about the moon missions,




for the Apollo mission images, the camera and lens information is well documented. The still photos taken by the lunar module team were taken exclusively by Hasselblad cameras modified to accept 70 mm film backs, 1:1 image ratio, with 60mm Zeiss Metric lenses.





  • Photography Equipment and Techniques, A Survey of NASA Developments, 1972.

From NASA's history page, Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo,




Five more flights landed on the Moon after Apollo 11. On all, the photographic equipment and films were similar to that taken on the first landing. On Apollo 15, the 250mm telescopic lens was added to the Hasselblad lunar surface complement.




See also the wonderful history.nasa.gov resources,



  • Apollo Flight Journal


  • Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, such as the Apollo 11 Hasselblad Cameras page.


Regarding the second issue in your question, you said,




I suspect that the lens used doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon.




I'm not quite sure what you mean by "doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon". If perhaps you mean apparent size of the Earth, then you need to understand angle and field of view.




Regarding your third issue/question,




Is there a way by looking or measuring a picture to determine what type of lens is used?




Assuming you're talking inspect only the image elements (and not metadata such as EXIF data embedded in a digital image's file), you need to know a few things:



  1. The real-world size of object(s) in the scene.

  2. Distances between objects in the scene, or...

  3. Distances between the objects in the scene and the camera

  4. Whether or not the image has been cropped, enlarged, etc.

  5. Information about the size of the film or image sensor used to take the image.

Using this information, you can probably deduce the focal length of the lens used to take the image. The more information you know, and the higher the quality of that information, the better your guess can be to determine the lens's focal length.



The diameter of the earth is roughly 12,740 km. The earth and moon are about 384,400 km apart. Therefore, from the moon's surface, the earth appears to cover 2° of arc in the moon's "sky". In your image (which is 3804 px wide), I figure the earth is about 170 px across. So there are about 22.3 earth radii across the image. So the image covers a view of about 22.3 * 2° = 44.6° across.



Using the pinhole projection formula for angle of view, and knowing that the image frame size of the 70mm film on Apollo missions was 56mm across, I calculate the focal length of the lens to be 61mm. This agrees with the known, nominal 60mm focal length of the lenses used in Apollo missions.



Related: What is the formula for percent of frame filled at a specific distance and focal length?






share|improve this answer






















  • Would the Earth appear smaller with this lens compared to our own eyes or is it correct?
    – Muze
    2 hours ago






  • 2




    @Muze if you were standing at the same distance from the astronaut in the image, then the earth would appear to be the same size relative to the astronaut's helmet as it does in the image. You would see a wider field of view of course (peripheral vision and all), but if you were to just limit your vision to the same field of view as what's shown in the image above, from the same perspective as where the image was taken, then the earth would appear to be the same size.
    – scottbb
    2 hours ago

















up vote
1
down vote













Looking and measuring alone would be difficult, a lot of the images as we know them were cropped by NASA, some were also edited to remove Reseau Crosses.



If you know which mission it is from then you can find out as the cameras and their use on the Apollo missions was documented in detail and is publicly available - for example: Apollo 11 Image Library






share|improve this answer




















    Your Answer







    StackExchange.ready(function()
    var channelOptions =
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "61"
    ;
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
    createEditor();
    );

    else
    createEditor();

    );

    function createEditor()
    StackExchange.prepareEditor(
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    convertImagesToLinks: false,
    noModals: false,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: null,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    noCode: true, onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    );



    );













     

    draft saved


    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function ()
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fphoto.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f102426%2fwhat-kind-of-lens-is-used-in-this-picture-of-earth%23new-answer', 'question_page');

    );

    Post as a guest






























    2 Answers
    2






    active

    oldest

    votes








    2 Answers
    2






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes








    up vote
    2
    down vote



    accepted










    Your question is actually three questions. The first is simple and factual to answer; the second is based on possibly faulty assumptions; and the third has been asked before here.




    Answering your first question, "What kind of lens is used in this picture of Earth?", from an answer to a different question about the moon missions,




    for the Apollo mission images, the camera and lens information is well documented. The still photos taken by the lunar module team were taken exclusively by Hasselblad cameras modified to accept 70 mm film backs, 1:1 image ratio, with 60mm Zeiss Metric lenses.





    • Photography Equipment and Techniques, A Survey of NASA Developments, 1972.

    From NASA's history page, Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo,




    Five more flights landed on the Moon after Apollo 11. On all, the photographic equipment and films were similar to that taken on the first landing. On Apollo 15, the 250mm telescopic lens was added to the Hasselblad lunar surface complement.




    See also the wonderful history.nasa.gov resources,



    • Apollo Flight Journal


    • Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, such as the Apollo 11 Hasselblad Cameras page.


    Regarding the second issue in your question, you said,




    I suspect that the lens used doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon.




    I'm not quite sure what you mean by "doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon". If perhaps you mean apparent size of the Earth, then you need to understand angle and field of view.




    Regarding your third issue/question,




    Is there a way by looking or measuring a picture to determine what type of lens is used?




    Assuming you're talking inspect only the image elements (and not metadata such as EXIF data embedded in a digital image's file), you need to know a few things:



    1. The real-world size of object(s) in the scene.

    2. Distances between objects in the scene, or...

    3. Distances between the objects in the scene and the camera

    4. Whether or not the image has been cropped, enlarged, etc.

    5. Information about the size of the film or image sensor used to take the image.

    Using this information, you can probably deduce the focal length of the lens used to take the image. The more information you know, and the higher the quality of that information, the better your guess can be to determine the lens's focal length.



    The diameter of the earth is roughly 12,740 km. The earth and moon are about 384,400 km apart. Therefore, from the moon's surface, the earth appears to cover 2° of arc in the moon's "sky". In your image (which is 3804 px wide), I figure the earth is about 170 px across. So there are about 22.3 earth radii across the image. So the image covers a view of about 22.3 * 2° = 44.6° across.



    Using the pinhole projection formula for angle of view, and knowing that the image frame size of the 70mm film on Apollo missions was 56mm across, I calculate the focal length of the lens to be 61mm. This agrees with the known, nominal 60mm focal length of the lenses used in Apollo missions.



    Related: What is the formula for percent of frame filled at a specific distance and focal length?






    share|improve this answer






















    • Would the Earth appear smaller with this lens compared to our own eyes or is it correct?
      – Muze
      2 hours ago






    • 2




      @Muze if you were standing at the same distance from the astronaut in the image, then the earth would appear to be the same size relative to the astronaut's helmet as it does in the image. You would see a wider field of view of course (peripheral vision and all), but if you were to just limit your vision to the same field of view as what's shown in the image above, from the same perspective as where the image was taken, then the earth would appear to be the same size.
      – scottbb
      2 hours ago














    up vote
    2
    down vote



    accepted










    Your question is actually three questions. The first is simple and factual to answer; the second is based on possibly faulty assumptions; and the third has been asked before here.




    Answering your first question, "What kind of lens is used in this picture of Earth?", from an answer to a different question about the moon missions,




    for the Apollo mission images, the camera and lens information is well documented. The still photos taken by the lunar module team were taken exclusively by Hasselblad cameras modified to accept 70 mm film backs, 1:1 image ratio, with 60mm Zeiss Metric lenses.





    • Photography Equipment and Techniques, A Survey of NASA Developments, 1972.

    From NASA's history page, Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo,




    Five more flights landed on the Moon after Apollo 11. On all, the photographic equipment and films were similar to that taken on the first landing. On Apollo 15, the 250mm telescopic lens was added to the Hasselblad lunar surface complement.




    See also the wonderful history.nasa.gov resources,



    • Apollo Flight Journal


    • Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, such as the Apollo 11 Hasselblad Cameras page.


    Regarding the second issue in your question, you said,




    I suspect that the lens used doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon.




    I'm not quite sure what you mean by "doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon". If perhaps you mean apparent size of the Earth, then you need to understand angle and field of view.




    Regarding your third issue/question,




    Is there a way by looking or measuring a picture to determine what type of lens is used?




    Assuming you're talking inspect only the image elements (and not metadata such as EXIF data embedded in a digital image's file), you need to know a few things:



    1. The real-world size of object(s) in the scene.

    2. Distances between objects in the scene, or...

    3. Distances between the objects in the scene and the camera

    4. Whether or not the image has been cropped, enlarged, etc.

    5. Information about the size of the film or image sensor used to take the image.

    Using this information, you can probably deduce the focal length of the lens used to take the image. The more information you know, and the higher the quality of that information, the better your guess can be to determine the lens's focal length.



    The diameter of the earth is roughly 12,740 km. The earth and moon are about 384,400 km apart. Therefore, from the moon's surface, the earth appears to cover 2° of arc in the moon's "sky". In your image (which is 3804 px wide), I figure the earth is about 170 px across. So there are about 22.3 earth radii across the image. So the image covers a view of about 22.3 * 2° = 44.6° across.



    Using the pinhole projection formula for angle of view, and knowing that the image frame size of the 70mm film on Apollo missions was 56mm across, I calculate the focal length of the lens to be 61mm. This agrees with the known, nominal 60mm focal length of the lenses used in Apollo missions.



    Related: What is the formula for percent of frame filled at a specific distance and focal length?






    share|improve this answer






















    • Would the Earth appear smaller with this lens compared to our own eyes or is it correct?
      – Muze
      2 hours ago






    • 2




      @Muze if you were standing at the same distance from the astronaut in the image, then the earth would appear to be the same size relative to the astronaut's helmet as it does in the image. You would see a wider field of view of course (peripheral vision and all), but if you were to just limit your vision to the same field of view as what's shown in the image above, from the same perspective as where the image was taken, then the earth would appear to be the same size.
      – scottbb
      2 hours ago












    up vote
    2
    down vote



    accepted







    up vote
    2
    down vote



    accepted






    Your question is actually three questions. The first is simple and factual to answer; the second is based on possibly faulty assumptions; and the third has been asked before here.




    Answering your first question, "What kind of lens is used in this picture of Earth?", from an answer to a different question about the moon missions,




    for the Apollo mission images, the camera and lens information is well documented. The still photos taken by the lunar module team were taken exclusively by Hasselblad cameras modified to accept 70 mm film backs, 1:1 image ratio, with 60mm Zeiss Metric lenses.





    • Photography Equipment and Techniques, A Survey of NASA Developments, 1972.

    From NASA's history page, Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo,




    Five more flights landed on the Moon after Apollo 11. On all, the photographic equipment and films were similar to that taken on the first landing. On Apollo 15, the 250mm telescopic lens was added to the Hasselblad lunar surface complement.




    See also the wonderful history.nasa.gov resources,



    • Apollo Flight Journal


    • Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, such as the Apollo 11 Hasselblad Cameras page.


    Regarding the second issue in your question, you said,




    I suspect that the lens used doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon.




    I'm not quite sure what you mean by "doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon". If perhaps you mean apparent size of the Earth, then you need to understand angle and field of view.




    Regarding your third issue/question,




    Is there a way by looking or measuring a picture to determine what type of lens is used?




    Assuming you're talking inspect only the image elements (and not metadata such as EXIF data embedded in a digital image's file), you need to know a few things:



    1. The real-world size of object(s) in the scene.

    2. Distances between objects in the scene, or...

    3. Distances between the objects in the scene and the camera

    4. Whether or not the image has been cropped, enlarged, etc.

    5. Information about the size of the film or image sensor used to take the image.

    Using this information, you can probably deduce the focal length of the lens used to take the image. The more information you know, and the higher the quality of that information, the better your guess can be to determine the lens's focal length.



    The diameter of the earth is roughly 12,740 km. The earth and moon are about 384,400 km apart. Therefore, from the moon's surface, the earth appears to cover 2° of arc in the moon's "sky". In your image (which is 3804 px wide), I figure the earth is about 170 px across. So there are about 22.3 earth radii across the image. So the image covers a view of about 22.3 * 2° = 44.6° across.



    Using the pinhole projection formula for angle of view, and knowing that the image frame size of the 70mm film on Apollo missions was 56mm across, I calculate the focal length of the lens to be 61mm. This agrees with the known, nominal 60mm focal length of the lenses used in Apollo missions.



    Related: What is the formula for percent of frame filled at a specific distance and focal length?






    share|improve this answer














    Your question is actually three questions. The first is simple and factual to answer; the second is based on possibly faulty assumptions; and the third has been asked before here.




    Answering your first question, "What kind of lens is used in this picture of Earth?", from an answer to a different question about the moon missions,




    for the Apollo mission images, the camera and lens information is well documented. The still photos taken by the lunar module team were taken exclusively by Hasselblad cameras modified to accept 70 mm film backs, 1:1 image ratio, with 60mm Zeiss Metric lenses.





    • Photography Equipment and Techniques, A Survey of NASA Developments, 1972.

    From NASA's history page, Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo,




    Five more flights landed on the Moon after Apollo 11. On all, the photographic equipment and films were similar to that taken on the first landing. On Apollo 15, the 250mm telescopic lens was added to the Hasselblad lunar surface complement.




    See also the wonderful history.nasa.gov resources,



    • Apollo Flight Journal


    • Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, such as the Apollo 11 Hasselblad Cameras page.


    Regarding the second issue in your question, you said,




    I suspect that the lens used doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon.




    I'm not quite sure what you mean by "doesn't reflect how our eyes would see the Earth from the moon". If perhaps you mean apparent size of the Earth, then you need to understand angle and field of view.




    Regarding your third issue/question,




    Is there a way by looking or measuring a picture to determine what type of lens is used?




    Assuming you're talking inspect only the image elements (and not metadata such as EXIF data embedded in a digital image's file), you need to know a few things:



    1. The real-world size of object(s) in the scene.

    2. Distances between objects in the scene, or...

    3. Distances between the objects in the scene and the camera

    4. Whether or not the image has been cropped, enlarged, etc.

    5. Information about the size of the film or image sensor used to take the image.

    Using this information, you can probably deduce the focal length of the lens used to take the image. The more information you know, and the higher the quality of that information, the better your guess can be to determine the lens's focal length.



    The diameter of the earth is roughly 12,740 km. The earth and moon are about 384,400 km apart. Therefore, from the moon's surface, the earth appears to cover 2° of arc in the moon's "sky". In your image (which is 3804 px wide), I figure the earth is about 170 px across. So there are about 22.3 earth radii across the image. So the image covers a view of about 22.3 * 2° = 44.6° across.



    Using the pinhole projection formula for angle of view, and knowing that the image frame size of the 70mm film on Apollo missions was 56mm across, I calculate the focal length of the lens to be 61mm. This agrees with the known, nominal 60mm focal length of the lenses used in Apollo missions.



    Related: What is the formula for percent of frame filled at a specific distance and focal length?







    share|improve this answer














    share|improve this answer



    share|improve this answer








    edited 13 mins ago

























    answered 2 hours ago









    scottbb

    18.2k75388




    18.2k75388











    • Would the Earth appear smaller with this lens compared to our own eyes or is it correct?
      – Muze
      2 hours ago






    • 2




      @Muze if you were standing at the same distance from the astronaut in the image, then the earth would appear to be the same size relative to the astronaut's helmet as it does in the image. You would see a wider field of view of course (peripheral vision and all), but if you were to just limit your vision to the same field of view as what's shown in the image above, from the same perspective as where the image was taken, then the earth would appear to be the same size.
      – scottbb
      2 hours ago
















    • Would the Earth appear smaller with this lens compared to our own eyes or is it correct?
      – Muze
      2 hours ago






    • 2




      @Muze if you were standing at the same distance from the astronaut in the image, then the earth would appear to be the same size relative to the astronaut's helmet as it does in the image. You would see a wider field of view of course (peripheral vision and all), but if you were to just limit your vision to the same field of view as what's shown in the image above, from the same perspective as where the image was taken, then the earth would appear to be the same size.
      – scottbb
      2 hours ago















    Would the Earth appear smaller with this lens compared to our own eyes or is it correct?
    – Muze
    2 hours ago




    Would the Earth appear smaller with this lens compared to our own eyes or is it correct?
    – Muze
    2 hours ago




    2




    2




    @Muze if you were standing at the same distance from the astronaut in the image, then the earth would appear to be the same size relative to the astronaut's helmet as it does in the image. You would see a wider field of view of course (peripheral vision and all), but if you were to just limit your vision to the same field of view as what's shown in the image above, from the same perspective as where the image was taken, then the earth would appear to be the same size.
    – scottbb
    2 hours ago




    @Muze if you were standing at the same distance from the astronaut in the image, then the earth would appear to be the same size relative to the astronaut's helmet as it does in the image. You would see a wider field of view of course (peripheral vision and all), but if you were to just limit your vision to the same field of view as what's shown in the image above, from the same perspective as where the image was taken, then the earth would appear to be the same size.
    – scottbb
    2 hours ago












    up vote
    1
    down vote













    Looking and measuring alone would be difficult, a lot of the images as we know them were cropped by NASA, some were also edited to remove Reseau Crosses.



    If you know which mission it is from then you can find out as the cameras and their use on the Apollo missions was documented in detail and is publicly available - for example: Apollo 11 Image Library






    share|improve this answer
























      up vote
      1
      down vote













      Looking and measuring alone would be difficult, a lot of the images as we know them were cropped by NASA, some were also edited to remove Reseau Crosses.



      If you know which mission it is from then you can find out as the cameras and their use on the Apollo missions was documented in detail and is publicly available - for example: Apollo 11 Image Library






      share|improve this answer






















        up vote
        1
        down vote










        up vote
        1
        down vote









        Looking and measuring alone would be difficult, a lot of the images as we know them were cropped by NASA, some were also edited to remove Reseau Crosses.



        If you know which mission it is from then you can find out as the cameras and their use on the Apollo missions was documented in detail and is publicly available - for example: Apollo 11 Image Library






        share|improve this answer












        Looking and measuring alone would be difficult, a lot of the images as we know them were cropped by NASA, some were also edited to remove Reseau Crosses.



        If you know which mission it is from then you can find out as the cameras and their use on the Apollo missions was documented in detail and is publicly available - for example: Apollo 11 Image Library







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 2 hours ago









        James Snell

        9,1081837




        9,1081837



























             

            draft saved


            draft discarded















































             


            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function ()
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fphoto.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f102426%2fwhat-kind-of-lens-is-used-in-this-picture-of-earth%23new-answer', 'question_page');

            );

            Post as a guest













































































            Popular posts from this blog

            How to check contact read email or not when send email to Individual?

            Displaying single band from multi-band raster using QGIS

            How many registers does an x86_64 CPU actually have?