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These images are taken from a mobile camera of 21 June 2020 solar eclipse.

So the thing surprising me is there are two objects.

I have shown these images to some people. Some says it's just reflection of sun in camera lenses. And some says the blue object is Venus. But we know if that is Venus then crescent should face the sun.

So I want to know what that light blue crescent object is. And if it is the eclipsed Sun then what is the other bright thing?

First image:

enter image description here

Second image:

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ This is a question for photo.stackexchange.com $\endgroup$
    – Nayuki
    Jun 21, 2020 at 20:03
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    $\begingroup$ additional discussion in answers to Does this smartphone photo show Mars just below the Sun? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Jun 21, 2020 at 23:31
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    $\begingroup$ At first, I thought the two pictures were just one picture. They appear seamlessly in my browser, and the contents seemed to make sense given the question. I'm going to submit an edit request to visually separate the two images. $\endgroup$
    – Tanner Swett
    Jun 22, 2020 at 2:48
  • $\begingroup$ @Nayuki only if you already know the answer... $\endgroup$
    – Fred vdP
    Jun 23, 2020 at 10:07

3 Answers 3

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It's an internal reflection. The dead giveaway is that in the second picture, the reflected image is a point reflection at the center of the image optical axis (assuming the image was not cropped).

Using this information, I can predict that the crescent in the actual Sun (which is overexposed), would have the Moon take a bite out of the Sun at the 4 o'clock position (since the reflection has it at the 10 o'clock position).

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The people who say it is an internal reflection are right. This is an internal reflection inside the lens of the camera. There is no actual object there. In particular, Venus is not visible this close to the sun even during a partial solar eclipse. Moreover, Venus is currently a very very thin sliver, no more than a scrape of light at the edge of the planet, and much smaller than this image shows.

It's actually quite nice, because the sun itself is overexposed and the eclipse is not visible, but the internal reflection is exposed quite nicely, and shows the progress of the eclipse well.

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  • $\begingroup$ Is the bright object which is reflection or crescent object? $\endgroup$
    – Usama
    Jun 21, 2020 at 12:17
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    $\begingroup$ The bright object is the highly overexposed sun. The shape of the sun can't be seen. (This kind of shot can actually damage the sensor, it's not designed for that much heat and light.) The blue crescent object is the internal reflection of the sun. $\endgroup$
    – James K
    Jun 21, 2020 at 15:20
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    $\begingroup$ The frames when the Sun is visible and the sky is not overexposed usually don't damage the sensor—at least on an SLR if you are not using Live View and your lens' focal length is not too large. I've made lots of timelapses with the Sun moving through the frame, and my camera (Canon 1100D with 18mm lens) is still alive and doesn't show any signs of sensor wear. $\endgroup$
    – Ruslan
    Jun 21, 2020 at 20:26
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I used the same lens flare effect (internal reflections from the camera's optical surfaces) to image the eclipse from my phone. The shape (as well as the location) was a symmetric reflection about the center of the lens. The color was probably induced by the spectral response of the antireflection coating in the lenses, which are not perfect or flat.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Cool. I also got it accidentally but via a different mechanism. I shoot a person holding a phone and got the eclipse reflected on the phone body. Have to recover it.... $\endgroup$
    – Alchimista
    May 9, 2021 at 10:00
  • $\begingroup$ @Alchimista oh that's really sweet! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    May 9, 2021 at 16:48

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