Debunking the "Tilted Moon Filmed in Canada" Nonsense

Normally I wouldn't make a thread about an insignificant video like this, but since I see it reposted somewhat frequently around here and since the premise is a complete lie, I figured I'd repost my debunking of it as its own thread so I can refer to it when necessary. Some claim this was filmed in "Canada" and shows the moon tilted 90 degrees (not the video's author, but others who I guess determined that the video author lives in Canada).

It doesn't say "Canada" in the comments or in the description. And look at this, it was filmed on a cruise ship:
[link to www.youtube.com]

Now where was this cruse ship? Well judging by the ladies walking around with bare arms, it sure doesn't look like Canada. Oh, but we can KNOW where that cruise ship was headed because this video was uploaded the same day:
[link to www.youtube.com]
Cozumel. So they were somewhere in the Caribbean.

Now judging by the many uploads that day, chances are they uploaded them after getting home from their cruise, not the same day they filmed them. Therefore we have to go based on the phase of the moon and the month it was uploaded to find the date it was filmed. I would eyeball that to be about 40% illuminated, though because it's so bright it's hard to say which features are illuminated and therefore whether it's waxing or waning. So let's find more detailed info on where and when this cruise occurred, shall we?
[link to www.youtube.com]
" Stephanie MacDonald 3 years ago

It was the Norwegian Jewel. Charter Cruise by Sixthman. Ships and Dip V (Barenaked Ladies)"

Much better. A quick search for that turns up this:

[link to boards.cruisecritic.com]
"The Norwegian Jewel will host Barenaked Ladies annual Ships and Dip cruise February 1-6, 2009."

There we go! According to my spreadsheet ( Thread: Calculating the Position and Orientation of the Moon ), the moon was 40% full at about 1:20 UT on February 2nd, 2009 which would be at 8:20 at night on February 1st by Florida time. From this video we can see they departed from Miami on February 1st:
[link to www.youtube.com]

We can see that February 2nd was a "day at sea" between Miami and Cozumel:
[link to www.suebeedesigns.com]

Makes perfect sense; days spent at sea typically involve parties on the deck at night, and it was their first night out at sea on February 1st. They probably weren't too far from Miami at that point, I'm going to guess somewhere near the Keys, 24.5N 81W. According to my previously mentioned spreadsheet the moon was highly tilted from those coordinates all night, reaching 90 degrees tilt exactly at 11:03pm eastern time. Even as early as 9pm it was 82 degrees tilted from vertical, by 10pm it was nearly 86 degrees tilted, and again at 11:03 it peaked at 90 degrees tilt. So yes, this video is confirmed by calculations showing where the moon SHOULD be and how tilted it SHOULD look relative to the horizon.

Damn I'm good.

Last Edited by Astromut on 03/11/2013 07:45 AM