Recent Milky Way Photo - Texas - 2012 Galactic Alignment View

Here's the original thread I just posted -- Astronomy Photos of the Day.

Didn't expect the center to look like this!





[edit on 26-10-2007 by anhinga]

Good picture.

Looking at the stars always gives me a sense of calm. I dont know why, but I think its because no matter how horrible things we do to eachother on this planet, the rest of the universe will not be harmed by us. It will remain in its beauty even after we are gone.



[edit on 26-10-2007 by Copernicus]

I believe this pic was PhotoShopped to align the MW with the road.

This
is
not
a
one-
sentence
post.

About 13 years ago while living in Chino Valley, Az., near Prescott, I was out in my father in-law's backyard on a ultra clear mid-summer night at about midnight. Out here you can see the entire night sky as there are not very many mountains or obstructions anywhere in the area except for Granite Mountain which was behind me. There was no big city light pollution at all and the stars were incredibly bright and vibrant, the Milky Way was visible in its entirety. A huge swath of what looked like airbrushed light across the entire sky… it was amazing…. Then it hit me. WHOOAAAAAA!!!!

I, for the first time saw our Milky Way galaxy in 3 dimensions… it had depth.. I could clearly see the spiral arms swirling out from the dense bright center, one of them curving around to Earths position near its outer edge….. like looking at the center of a pinwheel from its edge. I was floored… then very VERY emotional. Just like that moment Jodie Foster had in Contact when she “had no idea”…. It was that kind of speechless emotion.

A few years ago while backpacking in Yosemite with a friend I tried to explain to him what I saw while stargazing that evening atop a granite mound just outside the tree line. We could see the Milky Way but not quite enough to see it like I did in Arizona. He couldn’t “see it”… he tried and tried but there just wasn’t enough of the sky visible. Then a few months go by and I get a phone call from him after a trip to Yosemite he made in which I was unable to attend. “Dude, I SAW IT!! OMG!! I saw it man you were right… there were no words… only tears.”

We both agreed that this experience has changed our lives in some way… there really are no words.

Yeah, that is a great photo, and no. I don't think it's photoshopped, at least not the location or alignment.

Heh, it says 'Texas'. I mean if it was 'shopped', you wouldn't put the 'location'! It might have been contrast enhanced, though.

Here's another cool one:
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...

Edge on of a very thin galaxy.

The original source said it is a composite photo, which is basically the same thing.

Source

reply to post by anhinga


A Wonderful picture- The Highway to the Stars!!!

And the reason the milky way is perpendicular to earth is...

...that Earth is not part of the milky way, but of the near by Saggitarious galaxy!!!

reply to post by anhinga


That's beautiful........ I wish I was there looking at that.

reply to post by porky1981


You wouldn't be able to see it, you need to have the camera exposure open to gather the light first unfortunatley, human ee's won't show you what you are seeing in this photograph

Wow nice one. This one also looks really awesome.




[edit on 5-11-2007 by Jbird]

I would like to know when was this picture taken appreciate your help

I live in Texas in a dark rural area (no near by towns). On moonless nights the stars are quite impressive. Not quite as nice as these exposures though. The band of stars in the milky way is always beautiful.