Starship Asterisk*

Gorgeous image, and wow, it really puts things in perspective.

Well done!

-Noel

I agree with Joe, I think the Mayans ran out of room on the rocks they were writing on when they reached 2012. Plus it simply represents the end of an epic in their cultural beliefs. Maybe they weren’t around long enough to come up with the follow up epic. Now popular culture is reading doom into 2012. Personally, I’m waiting for NASA to run out of room on the APOD servers before claiming to know the end of the world!

BTW – It's a beautiful image today... It’s such a lovely moon pose! And that background is sooo deep!

[quote="Boomer12k"]When the moon crosses the Galactic Equator, is that another indication of 2012 and Doomsday, huh, Sensei? :D[/quote]

I think this [url]http://tinyurl.com/3q43tk9[/url] image sums it all up!

I am always amazed at the images anyone associated with TWAN puts out but this one just me be my all time favorite! Great shot Mr. Tafreshi and thanks for posting it APOD!

When the moon crosses the Galactic Equator, is that another indication of 2012 and Doomsday, huh, Sensei? :D

"Oh My God -- It's Full of Stars!"
-- David Bowman, Astronaut, _2001: A Space Odyssey_ , Arthur C. Clarke.

[quote="APOD Robot"][url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110617.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_110617.jpg[/img] [size=150]Eclipsed Moon in the Milky Way[/size][/url]

The tantalizing [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070308.html]red lunar disk[/url] lies just above the bowl of the dark Pipe Nebula, [/quote]
More [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus]Sisyphus[/url] than [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalus]Tantalus[/url] actually:

[b][i][color=#FF00FF]The sisyphying [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070308.html]red lunar disk[/url] lies just above the bowl of the dark Pipe Nebula,[/color][/i][/b]

[quote=" http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/32/messages/560.html"]

[b][color=#FF0000]PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT[/color][/b]

[list]Make what you can of what I've just said!;
Digest that, if you can!;
Put up with (or tolerate) that -- if you can![/list]
The earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary for this pipe-smoking expression is from Americans Abroad (1824), a two-act comedy by R. B. Peake. The next cite, a dozen years later, is from The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens’s first novel.

But how did pipe-smoking get into an expression about dealing with something whether you like it or not? The saying is apparently derived from a belief that pipe-smoking and meditation go together, according to Eric Partridge’s A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, edited by Paul Beale.[/quote]

WOW very nice.

What an excellent image! I am speechless...
Babak, thanks for the view!

What a novel Idea; showing the moon against the Milky Way in the background! 8-) Very nicely done. :)

Fantastic! It's photos like this that help hammer home the vastness of the universe. Normally, we see photos of one feature or the other that indicate how huge they each are. Then we have this photo that lets us know that these huge features are just a mere speck in the whole. What a way to wake up this morning ....

You said it, Ann: splendid indeed! Absolutely an instant favorite.

:mrgreen:

Wow, what an image!!! It's splendid! How great it is to see the apparent size of the Moon (and the apparent color of the eclipsed Moon) compared with the apparent size and RGB color of objects in the Milky Way!

Thanks, Babak! :D :D :D

Ann

[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110617.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_110617.jpg[/img] [size=150]Eclipsed Moon in the Milky Way[/size][/url]

[b] Explanation: [/b] On June 15, the [url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/eclipse-video.html]totally eclipsed Moon[/url] was very dark, with the Moon itself positioned on the sky toward the center of our [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110520.html]Milky Way Galaxy[/url]. This simple panorama captures totality from northern Iran in 8 consecutive exposures each 40 seconds long. [url=http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/galleries_latest.asp?Sort=All&page=1]In the evocative scene[/url], the dark of the eclipsed Moon competes with the Milky Way's faint glow. The tantalizing [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070308.html]red lunar disk[/url] lies just above the bowl of the dark Pipe Nebula, to the right of the glowing [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070804.html]Lagoon and Trifid[/url] nebulae and the central Milky Way dust clouds. [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090708.html]At the far right[/url], the wide field is anchored by yellow Antares and the colorful clouds of Rho Ophiuchi. To identify other sights of the central Milky Way just slide your cursor over the image. The total phase of this [url=http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2011.html#LE2011Jun15T]first lunar eclipse of 2011[/url] lasted an impressive 100 minutes. Parts of the eclipse were [url=http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23957]visible from most of planet Earth[/url], with notable exceptions of North and Central America.

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