Are the bright spots to the lower right in this photo galaxies or just camera artifacts[0]? Unreal photo either way.

[0]https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/art002e009301/art002e00...

dylan604 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They said they were able to see a few planets during the eclipse. I know they definitely saw Mars as they were discussing the red color. They saw Venus which was visible in the live feed from the GoPro on the solar panel. IIRC, they were thinking Saturn would have been visible. My guess is the really bright dots are planets. It looks like some horrendous compression artifacts along with some possible lens distortion. My exif app says no exif data in the jpg you linked. Did you come to that image from their website that provides the EXIF to see what lens it was? Nothing looks like a galaxy in the image to me.

Edit: After further looking and some zooming into it, I'd say the bright dot closest to the moon is Venus, the next one has a red tint making it Mars, and then the last one would be Saturn with the rings. There might be a couple of galaxies in the upper left corner. I was quick to dismiss and blame on compression. The benefits of not having to shoot through atmosphere. I wouldn't have expected that detail in what I'm assuming to be a fairly fast exposure

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Deebster 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There is EXIF available in the original version: https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/art002e009301/art002e00...

It's taken with an AF Nikkor 35mm f/2D on a NIKON Z 9.

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cogogo 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Appreciate the detailed response. I think it would be a borderline miraculous photo if they are planets aligned in that way. Zooming they look more like artifacts or galaxies to me. I spend a good amount of time looking at planets from earth through binoculars and even with an atmosphere they resolve better than that.

	▲	dylan604 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm pretty sure I'm right about the planets. The planets are aligned that way. If you're experienced looking at them with binocs, you should be aware of that. The line the planets are on is known as the ecliptic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic Also, if you look at the famous family portrait, you'll see they're in a pretty straight line as well https://science.nasa.gov/resource/first-ever-solar-system-fa...

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nfg 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

From left to right: Saturn, Mars and Mercury.