Night Skies

[Gravelrash]

Just to get away from hamburgers...I have gotten used to the Chiang Mai night sky where on a good night you may see a dozen stars. Stumbled Upon this view of a protected sky in Flagstaff USA with an amazing array of stars. Made me remember back home camping as a kid and the amazing night skies we used to see.

[vagabond48]

Wow !!!

[Goshawk]

i sympathise with you Gravelrash, indeed the night sky from Chiangmai is poor in 'jewels'

The nearest thing i've seen to your pic in Thailand is when i'm camping in Nam Nao National Park.. There, the night sky is absolutely awsome !

cries of, 'you baa !' from Mrs Goshawk fall on deaf ears as i stare endlessly at the magnificent starry vista.. Probably one of the darkest 'spots' in the whole country.. gotta go back soon..

[LivinLOS]

In the deep desert (north Sahara) not an electric light for miles and almost zero moisture in the air... Stunning..

Often pretty good out on the ocean too.

[jackr]

Yep, the best night sky is without doubt in the southern hemisphere... get yourself in the centre of WA, Oz. Can walk by starlight in the bush

[whiterussian]

awesome photo. Spaced out!

I feel completely insignificant. Or rather, my problems do.

"We are stardust..."

Edited January 3, 2009 by whiterussian

[vagabond48]

awesome photo. Spaced out!

I feel completely insignificant. Or rather, my problems do.

"We are stardust..."

In that image, we are only seeing an infinitesimal number of existing stars out of the "billions upon billions" (Carl Sagan) out there, many probably much larger than our own "small" sun.

We are indeed the stuff of stars.

[whiterussian]

existing stars

or stars that existed... if we had a telescope with a stronger focus, we might be able to see Mrs Alien Smith putting out her washing thousands of years ago on the now dead planet X534-R.

Anyway, i have to get back to work, need some earth credits to buy some hydrocarbons and carbohydrates.

boo hoo, im just a hairy pink monkey creature, on a little planet with flat earth nutters running the place. I thought I WAS SPECIAL!

maybe i should look on the bright side, IM NOT SPECIAL!! whohoo!! i can do what the fuc_k i like!! (as long as it doesnt violate hat wearing pink monkey laws in my region)

Edited January 3, 2009 by whiterussian

[vagabond48]

existing stars

I was scratching my head for a few when I finally remembered. Yeah, we are definitely looking at some stars that may no longer exist but I read that most of the lights (stars) that can be seen by the naked eye are from our galaxy and are approximately 4k light years away. Not that long ago in the past as galaxies that are as much as several billion light years away.

Edited January 3, 2009 by vagabond48

[whiterussian]

4000? thanks thats a great bit of info to know! I know very little about astronomy.

So in theory, if mrs Alien Smith had a big arse mirror on a planet, say, 2000 years ago, on a planet 1000 light years away, we could look at the reflection and see the earth 2000 years ago! cool. I want a telescope.

I guess if we are still around long enough some of our radio/tv/waves will bounce back, we can watch the re-runs!

Edited January 3, 2009 by whiterussian

[Gravelrash]

Glad you guys enjoyed the pic, I thought it was pretty amazing, plus I was getting bored posting in the news forum. Apparently that town is protected, meaning they limit the night time lighting to ensure astronomers can enjoy the view with telescopes etc. Nice idea.

As I just said in a PM, I just installed an add on called Stumble! into my Firefox browser. It gives you a button where it takes you to websites at random in pre-cited preferences in subjects. Have come across quite a few interesting websites already. Another thing is that Firefox has a built in spell checker that helps you not post spelling mistakes and be taken to task by the grammar police. It isn't 100% but not bad.

Cheers.

[fred2007]

Yep, the best night sky is without doubt in the southern hemisphere... get yourself in the centre of WA, Oz. Can walk by starlight in the bush

I totally agree with you I never seen so many stars then in OZ

[dageshi]

I am ashamed to say that coming from the UK at the age of 27 I'd never seen the milky way until 6 months ago. Light pollution being what it is in the UK I just had no idea, guess I knew technically it was up there.

Anyway 6 odd months ago, sitting on the beach in Sihanoukville drinking beer and looking out to sea watching for the occasional lightning flash the power went off as it is wont to do Snooky, I looked up and there it was. Just spent 5 minutes sipping beer and watching the milky way. And then the bloody power came back on.

Anyways I've been wondering where the best place in the world might be to see it, or maybe the best place in asia. Mongolia, the gobi in China?

[Greenside]

I should think the Gobi Desert would be good. Here's a picture I just came across in the boston.com roundup of best pictures of 2008 - look through them if you have a few minutes to spare, they really are amazing.

[Super Hans]

I am ashamed to say that coming from the UK at the age of 27 I'd never seen the milky way until 6 months ago. Light pollution being what it is in the UK I just had no idea, guess I knew technically it was up there.

I grew up in the 70s in the rural south west - the skies were terrific then. You could actually see satellites in orbit, and shooting stars were everywhere.

Thailand was a huge disappointment in terms of star gazing, as was NZ and Australia. Light pollution is actually pretty difficult to avoid.