Sun glare in pictures

[Jairo]

Usually, I see the Sun with many rays spreading from it in pictures. But in some pictures from Apollo, the glare is just a big circle. What causes this difference?

[trebor]

Longer exposure time would cause the glare to obscure the sun spokes.
Note that in the earth picture the earth is quite dark and looks like a very short exposure time was used.

[Czero 101]

Lens design will effect the way the flare looks as well.


Cz

[tedward]

I thought this was down to lens design, number of elements and angle the light comes in to play from bright sources?

[banjomd]

Sept 29, 2010 3:04:32 GMT -4 tedward said:

I thought this was down to lens design...

including coating/multicoating

[Al Johnston]

The aperture will also have an effect - 'sunstars' are more common when the iris diaphragm is stopped down, and the number of spokes depends on the number of blades making up the diaphragm.

Also, the Apollo images you linked to don't seem to have the Sun in frame, so I wouldn't expect sunstars in those cases.

[Data Cable]

Sept 29, 2010 6:12:29 GMT -4 Al Johnston said:

Also, the Apollo images you linked to don't seem to have the Sun in frame, so I wouldn't expect sunstars in those cases.

6950-52, 6971-72, and 6995-98 all definitely did.

[Jairo]

Thank you all for the answers. Now I'm searching for such thing in pictures taken on Earth. Do you know any?

[Jairo]

I found this very instructive, but not yet an example of a big disk.

www.hdrlabs.com/tutorials/index_files/lens_flares_comp_2_600.jpg
www.hdrlabs.com/tutorials/