A young girl residing in Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, Guyana, South America, took out her camera to capture a photo of the famed blue moon that occurred last evening, Wednesday, 30th of August, 2023. She captured a beautiful shot, but something else appeared in the photo. Something that appears like…another moon? The photo is posted below.
As you can see from the photo, the moon is there and another object that looks like the moon is towards the top right of the photo.
The photo above was taken by the young girl at 8:32 PM on August 30th, 2023. Surprised to see another moon in the image, the young girl readjusted the brightness of the camera to normal and took another photo, posted below.
The young girl told this publication that she adjusted the camera to normal brightness to make sure that she wasn’t seeing things or that the night vision mode of the camera didn’t cause an illusion.
The citizen however, said that she could not have seen two moons when she looked up into the sky with her naked eyes. It only appeared in the photograph.
About 30 minutes later, the young girl, who requested not to be named, took another picture of the moon, but this time, the second moon did not appear.
So, what do you think caused the image of a second moon to appear in photo of the night sky? Tell us in the comments!
Update
More and more people reported seeing two moons in the last few days. And it certainly doesn’t appear to be lens flare or an optical illusion. Some said they also saw it with the naked eyes. Here are some more photos.
Possibly Lens Flare or the Planet Saturn
Public opinion seem to be divided on what this other moon-like object might be. Some positioned that it is the planet Saturn while other said it is simply lens flare.
One expert, a science student and professional photographer, weighed in:
It’s a normal occurrence when taking photos. The light hitting the lens creates a shadow of the original. I don’t think that Saturn will be so visible at such size near to the moon. Lens flare is influenced by angle, lighting, and positioning of the lens of the camera.
When asked how come people reported seeing two objects with the naked eyes, he responded that the eyes also have lens, so the same thing happens creating an illusion. When asked why the lens flare, if it is indeed lens flare, only happens sometimes, the photographer responded that lens flare doesn’t always happen because it depends on positioning of the lens, lighting, and angle.
