When craters become mountains .....

[jarbi]

Hi Everyone,

My question will be familiar for many of you I think: what can I do when - during Moon observation - my vision "inverts" the relief of the Moon- the craters become mountains ( more like domes ). It is by times pretty frustrating, because I personally don't like to see things this way.

I know that it's an optical illusuion, and sometimes my "normal" vision comes back from itself, sometimes not at all. For example, yesterday evening I was observing one of my favourites, Clavius and it's surrounding. After some seconds, my vision "switched", and I could only "get back" to normal ( for a short time ) when I slewed to Plato.

I am really curious if you have any tips to avoid this phenomen !

cheers,

Janos

[GazOC]

It happens to me occasionally, I've even seen it on a laptop screen when imaging. No idea how to fix it though, sorry!

[lunator]

I haven't suffered from this but as I unnderstand it the cause is due to your brain assuming the light is coming from one direction when it is actually coming from the opposite direction.

I have been told that the trick is to move your head so that the true light direction and the assumed light direction match as closely as possible and hopefuly the correct view will appear again.

Cheers

Ian

[solo]

Hi, Janos,

I have this problem quite often, especially when looking at pictures of the moon. If I'm at the eyepiece I find if I defocus and then refocus everything comes back to normal and when looking at pictures , if you turn them upside down they revert to normal. wierd eh?

Cheers, John.

[kniclander]

I never had this problem but I bet I do now :?

[solo]

It's not only craters for me. I have the same problem with those fantastic images of the ridges and valleys of Mars.

[Sam]

I know exactly what you are talking about! I get it quite often, like last night when doing some moon imaging - sometimes inverting or flipping the image gets rid of it - fully ol' brain :scratch:

[Talitha]

I've never experienced it at the eyepiece, but it's happened a few times while viewing images online. I think it has something to do with the contrast, because the only time it happens is when the images are overprocessed and lighter albedo areas are getting burned out. It might send a different signal to my brain, who knows.

In any case, it's very odd to see "innies" suddenly become "outies".

[Vega]

Theophilis is a common candidate for this effect... I get it EVERY time with my snap of it...

So annoying!

Matt

[The Warthog]

I often get this effect when looking at the small craters along the east side of Crisium. They do look very much like domes after full moon, as the terminator moves towards them. I get it sometimes in photographs of various crater fields, too, but I don't get it when looking at your picture of Theophilus.

[tinvek]

Theophilis is a common candidate for this effect... I get it EVERY time with my snap of it...

So annoying!

Matt

did the same for me till i'd scrolled half way down it, then it snapped into the correct form and no matter how i try i can't get the reverse effect back

[jarbi]

Thanks for all tips, specially defocus-refocus will be worth to try I think. Makes me wonder when do I get the next chance to try..

cheers,

Janos

[beamer3.6m]

I have never heard of this before and think your all mad - hehe.