DSCOVR Spacecraft Captures "EPIC" Photographs of The Dark Side of The Moon

Today NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite captured an event that will only happen twice a year due to the orbit of both the satellite and moon's orbits. DSCOVR, which is floating in space 1 Million miles away, took the images between 3:50PM and 8:45PM on July 16th. NASA will soon begin a constant, daily observation of Earth to provide photos and collect weather information for NOAA using and the satellite's camera "EPIC," a 4 megapixel camera. 

Back in 2008, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft shot a similar angle of the moon crossing, from 31 million miles away. Luckily for us, NASA's latest images show the full illuminated earth and moon, here is a comparison of the two (Deep Impact on the left, DSCOVR on the right). 

The color images of Earth from NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) are generated by combining three separate images to create a photographic-quality image. The camera takes a series of 10 images using different narrowband filters -- from ultraviolet to near infrared -- to produce a variety of science products. The red, green and blue channel images are used in these Earth images.

Combining three images taken about 30 seconds apart as the moon moves produces a slight but noticeable camera artifact on the right side of the moon. Because the moon has moved in relation to the Earth between the time the first (red) and last (green) exposures were made, a thin green offset appears on the right side of the moon when the three exposures are combined. This natural lunar movement also produces a slight red and blue offset on the left side of the moon in these unaltered images.

NASA hopes to begin daily observation in a months time, where they will publish photos acquired of our rotating Earth 12 - 36 hours after they are captured. The moon crossing will happen twice a year, as the orbital planes of both the moon and satellite coincide.