DOCUMENTED LUNAR GLOWS

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"The four views of zodiacal light were photographed while Apollo 15 command module was approaching sunrise while orbiting the Moon. Although the sun is still behind the edge of the Moon at lower right each frame, its light is scattered by reflections from countless interplanetary dust grains which lie in or near the orbital plane of the planets in our system. The view at upper right is in the same region but exposed for 60 seconds. The lower two views are at 15 degrees elongation with exposures times of ten seconds on the left and 30 seconds on the right. The streaking of the star fields occurs because the camera was rigidly mounted in the right-hand rendezvous window while the spacecraft was making attitude changes to hold the line-of-sight approximately horizontal to the lunar surface and to plane of orbit."

"The solar corona, as photographed from Apollo 15 about one minute prior to sunrise on July 31, 1971, is seen just beyond the lunar horizon. The bright object on the opposite side of the frame is the planet Mercury. The bright star near the frame center is Regulas, and the lesser stars form the head of the constellation Leo. Mercury is approximately 28 degrees from the center of the sun. the solar coronal streamers, therefore, appear to extend about eight degrees from the sun's center."