Dear fellow amateur astronomers (and astrophotographers),

I am very sorry to learn that there is some doubt as to the authenticity of my photo involving the passenger airplane passing in front of the moon approximately 15 months ago.

The photo was taken using a Canon EOS 300d digital camera at the prime focus of my Astro-Physics AP160/f7.5 EDF refractor with an image scale of 1.27"/pixel (it is my understanding that the Canon EOS 300d camera has square pixels and which measure 7.4 microns each and which leads to an image scale of 1.27"/pixel). My home is situated northeast of central Athens (at 38.2997d N, 23.7430d E) and which is approximately 43 km direct distance from the new Athens airport (at 37.9369d N, 23.9444d E) which is situated southeast of central Athens.

Since the objective of such an exercise is to capture the silhouette of an airplane against the lunar surface, we must focus and determine a proper exposure for the moon itself. The reduction in the brightness of the moon due the passing plane (and silhouette) should not be significant unless the plane is very close to the observer. As a result, various test exposures led me to a combination of ISO 100 and 1/125sec ... this was a mistake on my behalf because an exposure of 1/125sec proved to be slow and I caught some motion of the plane as it crossed the face of the moon. Please see my hires image at http://www.perseus.gr/Downloads/lunar-scenic-flyby-20060707-hires.tif (7.25 Mb in size and 1024x768 pixels). This image involves some unsharp masking to finetune the sharpness of the image (you will see noise in the image due to the unsharp masking but thankfully it does not impact the printed image at 300 dpi).

The image was loaded into the PhotoImpact Bundle (V5) software which was included for free with my purchase of a scanner (please see http://www.perseus.gr/Downloads/flyby-step-1.jpg) ... the next step was Format-> Dimensions (please see http://www.perseus.gr/Downloads/flyby-step-2.jpg) and a width of 650 pixels (for web presentation) was selected (please see http://www.perseus.gr/Downloads/flyby-step-3.jpg) ... and which led to the following resampled image: http://www.perseus.gr/Downloads/flyby-step-4.jpg. One problem we encounter when we resample an image is the fact the new (resampled) image loses its sharpness and which necessitates a new step involving unsharp masking (Format->Focus, please see http://www.perseus.gr/Downloads/flyby-step-5.jpg  and http://www.perseus.gr/Downloads/flyby-step-6.jpg) and which leads us to a new resampled image suitable for web presentation (http://www.perseus.gr/Downloads/flyby-step-7.jpg) and which matches the image on my website as well as the sample image here on the magazine's gallery. I should mention that I saved the resampled file as JPG (original imported file is in TIFF format) and I compressed very slightly (98%) so as to reduce the file size from 340,225 bytes to 246,851 bytes.

Please note the presence of the contrails which result from the exhaust of the engines and which leave a characteristic trail behind the plane's engines and which I think (?) has to do with the freezing of the exhaust particles (during the day, for example, we see the long white trails across the sky when the temperatures are relatively low).

In late June/2007 I suffered a hard disk failure (it was only 18 months old) and I have lost a number of original files and which includes my original EOS RAW file for this particular image (otherwise I would also have loaded the RAW file as well). I have sent the hard disk to Seagate (in Holland) for data recovery and they asked for 2400 euro for such an attempt. I asked them to return the failed disk and I have inquired locally about data recovery ... I have been asked to locate a hard disk of precisely the same model (Seagate ST960822A 60Gb) and production run (PN: 9w3237-505, FW: 3.02) so that the magnetic media of the damaged disk can be transferred onto the new disk (of the same model) and for a data recovery attempt (500 euro only) to be made (the damaged hard disk seems to have a defective read head and a direct data recovery effort is not possible). I have located such a hard disk right now on eBay (auction number 270181744024) after a long search and I am waiting for the seller to inform me of the shipping charges to Greece.

I promise to also provide the original Canon RAW file once I hopefully have it available to me following successful (?) data recovery. I have lost about 3 Gb of original files and I am very eager to have them recovered. My backup on CD was a partial failure because some of the CD's are defective (I managed to recover 17 of the 20Gb I had on CD backup).

I would like to give you my word that the image is 100% genuine and there is NOTHING unethical about it. Such a photo is very difficult to capture and I have been spending my summers during the period around full moon (+/- 2-3 days) purposely setting up and waiting for such a photo opportunity. During the past five years, I have had three such opportunities ... on one evening, I gathered all of my equipment after no luck with such a pass and then only to have a plane pass in front of the moon (if I had waited 10 minutes before gathering my equipment, I would have captured the transit); on one other occasion the rechargeable battery emptied while I was waiting and which I did not notice (when I pressed the shutter release cable during the transit and nothing happened, I checked to see what was wrong and it is then I noticed the empty battery), and the third occasion is the particular photo you see.

I would be happy to answer any other questions or concens which may exist surrounding this photo.

I thank you and wish you clear skies!

Anthony