As I kid, I used to zoom into the night sky while lying in my sleeping bag in the back yard. Scary, swooshing fun. Now we can zoom out/in virtually, via a photograph. Perhaps this photo will nudge us to actually venture outside on a clear, moonless night in a place where city lights don’t drown out the sky. Perhaps we will stop looking at, fiddling with, and exchanging “stuff” for long enough to actually look up? (Warning: try to pick a night without chemtrails.)
Via Shodo.
Amateur photographer shoots largest photo ever of the night sky
What you see above is the largest true-color photograph of the night sky ever created, shot by 28-year-old amateur astrophotographer Nick Risinger using six astronomical cameras. It’s not just the view of the sky from one location, but is instead a 360-panoramic view of the sky taken by trekking 60,000 miles across the western United States and South Africa starting in March 2010. The final image is composed of 37,000 separate photographs. Check out the massive zoomable high-definition version of the photo here.
Photopic Sky Survey (via Wired)
0 thoughts on “ZOOM into our night sky!”
One free iPad compatible star gazing program is called “GoSkyWatchP”. You simply aim your iPad at any celestial body until the object of interest is inside the program’s targeting circle. An information balloon then pops-up on screen nearby with an enlarged photo and description. I find it’s ecliptic circle-line magical. 4 to 5 year olds begin to understand all the planets appear along the great ecliptic circle.
“Grandpa, what’s that star called?”
“That’s not a star sweetheart, that’s Venus. Venus is a planet like Earth and it rotates around the Sun just like Earth. It’s shinny bright because it’s refecting the sun’s light back to us. The Sun is a star, not a planet.”
“Grandpa, what’s a star?”
You get the idea.
Beautifull !