The colors are real but exaggerated during image processing by pushing color saturation much higher than normal.
I took a pic of the moon in 2018 and noticed the colors when playing around in Lightroom. At first I thought it was artifacts from my camera but after some research realized it was due to real Iron and Titanium oxides:
> The color in this image is real, but presented with increased saturation so it is easily visible to our eyes. The reddish tones demonstrate areas rich in iron and feldspar, while the bluish areas are spots where the regolith is rich in titanium. Oxidization from influence from Earth's atmosphere makes the colors appear like they do.
> Is the color real if it has wildly increased saturation?
It might be more accurate to say that the color is not typically that noticeable by the human eye. It's "real" in the sense that it exists even though we can't perceive it without help, like infrared light, or the sound made by black holes.
Agree the saturation is pushed to the point of absurdity in the moon image. Doesn't look like a 'Real' Photo anymore and thus looses it's impact/gravity.
So a little like Hawaiian volcanic red dirt soils. At least one of the moon landing sites would have been in the red dirt. Would be interesting if the moon landing footage from there also matches up with a color grade of a redish tone.
All the photos I've seen the ground is supper grey.
Anywhere on the near side would be exposed to the Earth's extended atmosphere, so this oxidation would be everywhere. Out of all the Apollo landing sites, ironically Apollo 11 would be the only one in an area not heavily reddish in this photo. So, no, this coloration would not be perceptible to the human eye.
Right in the beginning: "Two astrophotographers have teamed up to produce an out-of-this-world photo of the moon, capturing over 200,000 shots to create a single image."
I'm no astrophotgrapher but I'd imagine 200,000 shots takes a long time to go through.
They did themselves a bit of a disservice uploading the full-resolution version. Enlarged to 3m x 3m and viewed from 20cm away, which is approximately the situation when you view this one at 100% on a computer screen, you can see every imperfection. I think it looks great when viewed at normal size.
When do we get a lunar image of the sun?