If this photo is real, what does that say about Media?

If this photo is real, what does that say about Media?

Okay, the rest of them are at the following URL:

http://www.abidemiracles.com/9089052.htm

Untouched, hot off the press.

Then what?

Untouched, hot off the press.

Wasn't this ALREADY cleared up on another thread?

I seem to be having deja vu otherwise.

Mount Wilson Solar Cam Operator Response to ZetaTalk's claim of PX

Quote:
I actually wrote to UCLA, and the following was their response:

"The pictures are indeed real, and used without permission,
but they are not of the purported claims that you are referring to (read
below for the proper explanation). The website you refer to is one of
the grossest abuses of science I have seen so far this year. Since this
generated a number of emails to our website, I´m sending you below the
email from the person directly responsible for operating the Mount
Wilson Solar Cam. If any one is to be an authoratative source on the
pictures, he´s the one.

Sincerely,
Peter Plavchan
2nd year graduate student
UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy.

> Everyone,
>
> This saga began 2 days ago when I started to receive email at
> obs@astro asking me to explain "unusual" images from our UCLA
> Towercam, which I did. Nothing more than overexposed images of the
> moon and internal lens reflections I told them. (see
> http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/images/no_planet_x.jpg
> <http://www.astro.ucla.edu/%7Eobs/images/no_planet_x.jpg> for an
> example.) Unwittingly, I then moved the camera southward towards the
> city because I had received yet another email complaining that we
> don´t show the city views enough. (We receive email regarding the
> Towercam daily.) After I did that, we then started to receive email
> of the paranoia variety accusing us of turning the camera away from
> the ecliptic so as _not_ to show the dreaded "Planet-X" rising and
> setting on the horizon(!) I also started to received email of genuine
> concern about all of this nonsense, and through these, discovered this
> woman´s crackpot website and found that she was posting our towercam
> images to support her crazy theories---all without our permission.
>
> I felt that using Towercam images which clearly show the "UCLA Physics
> and Astronomy" header was tantamount to sanctioning their crazy
> cause, so I sent an email to help@astro asking if anything should be
> done about it. I received no reply from help@astro, and knowing
> full-well how futile it is to argue directly with these people, I
> decided to confront the issue with a little humor, so hung a
> basketball in the towercam frame marked "Planet-X." (I was careful to
> never mention, refute, or provide any link to the crackpot website for
> obvious reasons.) As soon as the basketball "Planet-X" went up on the
> internet, I started to receive supportive email like crazy thanking me
> for having such a great sense of humor. Several of them even
> mentioned that the use of humor has calmed "their kids" in classrooms
> who were worried about all of this Planet-X and "End of the World"
> talk. A few did say that such a prank was childish, but 98% of them
> thought that it was wonderful we would attack mass stupidity in such
> an manner. This was a typical response:
>
> /"I have just picked myself up from the floor from laughing at your
> photo/
> /of the dreaded Planet X. As the family amateur (very) astronomer, I/
> /can´t tell you how tired I am of answering questions about this or
> that/
> /photo on the woo-woo sites (I´m sure you´ve had to deal with much, much/
> /more). I now point the people in question towards your photo and
> voila!/
> / For most of them, anyway, instant enlightenment. Thanks folks!!! I/
> /think I´ll go look at it and giggle wildly again./
>
> /Bryn Kildow"/
>
>
> So now, should one respond to crackpot science claims or not?? Having
> personally known, admired, and been inspired, by the late George O.
> Abell, I tend to lean toward his own viewpoint on the subject: attack
> scientific stupidity square-on with truth (or humor) whenever possible!
>
> Larry Webster"

Jason: Can you tell me why you moved the camera direction?
Larry Webster: Yes, we get many requests to look at the city lights, so I thought I'd turn the camera toward Pasadena. No other reason.
Jason: Would you keep important information from the public if the government told you to?
Larry Webster: Depends. If it was truly in the public interest to do so, perhaps I would. Wouldn't anyone? In the case of the Towercam images, there is nothing to tell (or not tell!). The "strange object" that "Misty" seems so fascinated with is nothing more than the plain ol' Moon. An explanation is found here: http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/images/no_planet_x.jpg
Jason: How can I buy that theory? How can such a small, dim cresent moon produce a bright, round image?
Larry Webster: Well, your going to have to because it's no theory, it's a fact! I don't have time for a discussion on image optics now, but rest assured, it's an image of the overexposed moon, nothing more. You might have a look in our Towercam gallery for other examples of the same thing: http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/tcbest.html
Jason: The Moon is just now a cresent thumbnail.

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~giacalon/pictures.html

Aurora in Tucson! The bright sun-like-object is actually a very overexposed crescent moon. The constellation in this picture is Auriga. The center of the picture is directed to the Northwest, right is north and left is looking more west. This picture was taken with a 50mm lens at f/2.8 with an exposure time of 45 seconds on Mitsubishi ISO 100 film. If more Aurora occured in Tucson I would reduce the exposure time on subsequent pictures!