Measuring Moonlight from the Edge of the Atmosphere

Researchers want to accurately measure the spectrum of moonlight so that the moon can be used as a reference to calibrate satellite imagers. However, measuring this spectrum from the ground is challenging because the atmosphere distorts the moonlight, shifting the spectrum. This animation illustrates the NIST team's solution, which is to place the measurement equipment in a high altitude plane called the ER-2 and take the spectrum measurement above 95% of Earth's atmosphere.
Client
NIST
Date
November 2019
Categories
Animation
Link
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2019/11/fly-me-partway-moon

Project Notes

This animation, aside from the 3D telescope rotation, was created entirely in Keynote, mostly using Magic Move (and occasionally more longer build sequences). The project file is available if you'd like to look around.