excellent view of our galaxy

This shot is excellent in terms of allowing the avergae Joe to visulaize and understand our location in the Galaxy. This was taken in Chile. It illustrates that Earth's orbital plane in nearly perpendicular to the galactic plane, and earths north pole faces outward towards intergalactic space with the south pole facing the galactic center. The photo was taken with a regular 35mm camera tracking the star field with a long exposure (about 2 minutes) which I estimate based on the degree of blur on the edges of the observatory buildings:



Source:www.space.com...

This was taken by a normal 35mm camera? i do not think so, this is a forgery. It's a clear clear night in my little town and i'm not looking at the center of the galaxy.

You couldn't even see that with a telescope on earth i'm guessing.

Nope, It is not a forgery. Remember, that this is taken high up in the Chilean mountains where the air is crisp and clear, there is no light polution, and the stars shine like spotlights. With a standard camera and a tracking mount, you can get great pics like this with little trouble.

Good find

Originally posted by Smugallo
This was taken by a normal 35mm camera? i do not think so, this is a forgery. It's a clear clear night in my little town and i'm not looking at the center of the galaxy.

You couldn't even see that with a telescope on earth i'm guessing.

Yes it is taken with a regular camera. Look at these photos, that were also taken with a regular camera.





[edit on 7-8-2007 by ZikhaN]

I've always wanted to do this, images like this are beautiful! I'm too fretful to leave my camera outside, since no doubt it would become water logged.

Wouldn't the starfield trail as well if the shutter was left open?

retracted

[edit on 8/8/2007 by darkbluesky]

Not with the correct film and exposure time Telescopic lens's can also be used to take images of planet, but for taking pretty pictures of starts then a 35mm is just fine.

Taking Astrographs with 35mm lens