sitemap
PA-FD-04  << previous picture back to the gallery
black sun
Although nothing out of the ordinary was observed with the naked eye, this photo clearly shows a sharply defined dark blue disc positioned in front of the Sun.

Images like these are sometimes attributed to a divine or otherworldly intervention. In reality, they show a well-known digital image artefact known as the "Black Sun Effect". The effect occurs when a camera is pointed at a scene with a very bright and concentrated light source, like the Sun. Instead of showing up like a uniformly saturated white light, some CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors will show these very bright areas as "black". For this to happen the number of photons hitting a pixel during a given time period (the exposure time) has to be far greater than the storage capacity of the pixel. A detailed explanation of the effect can be found at www.appliedcolorscience.com.

The round white dot in the upper half of the picture is another example of "mirror ghosting" (see PA-LF-05 and PA-LF-06]

[Image kindly submitted by Ari DERBOVEN]