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  • 2015-11-09 (xsd:date)
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  • Are These Photographs of a 'Hunter's Moon'? (en)
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  • On 4 November 2015 a Facebook user published three photographs (two singles and one combined set) with remarks asserting that the images depicted a phenomenon called a Hunters Moon: According to the claim, the occurrence of a Hunter's Moon allows some residents of North America to view what appears to be two suns in the sky. However, the nomenclature used was inaccurate, as a Hunter's Moon has nothing to do with the optical illusion of two suns: The first full moon after the autumnal equinox (known as the Hunter's Moon) occurred on 26 and 27 October in 2015 and not 3 November 2015, as the Facebook post suggested. As for the appended photographs, two of them were unrelated to the full moon of 26-27 October 2015. One of the most reliable markers of a story later fabricated to fit an existing photograph is earlier publication of an identical picture. In this case, both photographs of a Hunter's Moon were published to an Arabic-language message board on 13 October 2015 (prior to the year's Hunter's Moon) with a markedly different explanation of their origins (roughly translated as follows): The claim preceding the two suns rumor attributed the purported phenomenon to the visibility of Jupiter, and maintained that it occurred approximately once every century and a half (but in fact, Hunter's Moons occur annually). Another 31 August 2015 article in Arabic definitively illustrated that the photographs dated back at least that far, placing the depicted skyline in Tunisia (not in the United States, Canada, England, or Russia). The image featuring mountains was even older (appearing online as early as July 2008), and offered yet another explanation for the two suns phenomenon: While the first full moon after the autumnal equinox is called a Hunter's Moon, that designation is simply a name which has no relationship to an illusion of duplicate suns in the sky. Images circulating on social media along with the rumor were published before the late October 2015 Hunter's Moon and thus weren't depictions of that event. (en)
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