Some years ago, I was doing the coursework to become a commercial pilot. Not that I had any intention of becoming one, but my sister-in-law did, and the stuff she had to learn was interesting, so why not. One of the subjects covered was the physiology of sight. Now I won’t bore you with the details, but there are actually a number of different functions in the eye which go to make up vision, each suited to a different situation, be it detail work, peripheral, low light etc. One of the things I read at the time was that low light sensitivity was poor at rendering colour. I have always known that is why star photos are always colourful, yet we normally see just points of light.
What was demonstrated to me in dramatic fashion was the falsehood that is “by the light of the silvery moon”. Some photos taken by that very light at full moon on the Mitchell Plateau demonstrate that the moonlight is anything but silvery, giving a complete range of colours, if only you know how to look.
These photos look entirely normal, until you notice there are stars in the sky. Neat, hey!
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