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PIA00434: Clementine Observes the Moon, Solar Corona, and Venus
In this picture the Moon is seen illuminated solely by light reflected from the Earth--Earthshine from NASA's Clementine spacecraft.
 Target Name:  Moon
 Is a satellite of:  Earth
 Mission:  DSPSE 
 Spacecraft:  Clementine 1
 Instrument:  Star Tracker 
 Product Size:  1168 x 1552 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  U.S. Geological Survey 
 Addition Date:  1999-06-12 
 Primary Data Set:  Clementine EDRs 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA00434.tif (573.3 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA00434.jpg (74.17 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

In 1994, during its flight, the Clementine spacecraft returned images of the Moon. In addition to the geologic mapping cameras, the Clementine spacecraft also carried two Star Tracker cameras for navigation. These lightweight (0.3 kg) cameras kept the spacecraft on track by constantly observing the positions of stars, reminiscent of the age-old seafaring tradition of sextant/star navigation. These navigation cameras were also to take some spectacular wide angle images of the Moon.

In this picture the Moon is seen illuminated solely by light reflected from the Earth--Earthshine! The bright glow on the lunar horizon is caused by light from the solar corona; the sun is just behind the lunar limb. Caught in this image is the planet Venus at the top of the frame.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/USGS

Image Addition Date:
1999-06-12