Above we have an fantastic ultra patriotic image that was shared tens of thousands of times online. While the photographer did admit to it being a "composite" with the moon scaled up 75%, I found it to be a bit more of a complete work of fantasy after some analyzing.
If you can find a few reference stars in the image, it isn't super difficult to calculate the image scale in degrees per pixel. Unfortunately for photographers it is an astronomical fact that the moon doesn't occupy more than 1/2 of a degree in our wonderful night sky. By complete coincidence, the sun also occupies 1/2 of a degree in the day sky. Due to this astronomical oddity we can have perfect solar eclipses of the sun by the moon, something that wasn't always possible in the history of the planet.
So, using this information, how do we figure how just how fake the images are? Easily.
1. Measure the distance between the two stars on the night sky in planetarium software. In this case, about 8 degrees.
2. Measure the same distance in the image in pixels.
3. Derive image scale by dividing the distance in degrees by the distance in pixels.
4. Measure the moon width in pixels.
5. Multiply this distance by the image scale in degrees per pixel to see how big the moon was presented in degrees.
6. Convert that to a scale factor above 1/2 (0.5) of a degree.
After easily figuring out the moon was scaled up over 500%, you could do a little more investigation to see that the moon was actually moved into an area of the sky it doesn't belong, and put on a trajectory that doesn't even come close to representing the real path it would take on the night sky. Combine this information with the evenly spaced completely not chronological sequence of the event itself, and I can comfortably say this is a fantasy version of something that doesn't even come close to reality at all.
