by bystander » Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:25 pm
Whirling Southern Star Trails over ALMA
ESO Picture of the Week | 2012 Dec 31
Babak Tafreshi, one of the
ESO Photo Ambassadors, has captured the antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) under the southern sky in another breathtaking image.
The dramatic whorls of stars in the sky are reminiscent of
van Gogh’s Starry Night, or — for science fiction fans — perhaps the view from a spacecraft about to enter hyperspace. In reality, though, they show the rotation of the Earth, revealed by the photograph’s long exposure. In the southern hemisphere, as the Earth turns, the stars appear to move in circles around the south celestial pole, which lies in the dim constellation of
Octans (The Octant), between the more famous Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds. With a long enough exposure, the stars mark out circular trails as they move.
The photograph was taken on the Chajnantor Plateau, at an altitude of 5000 metres in the Chilean Andes. This is the site of the
ALMA telescope, whose antennas can be seen in the foreground. ALMA is the most powerful telescope for observing the cool Universe — molecular gas and dust, as well as the relic radiation of the Big Bang. When ALMA construction is complete in 2013, the telescope will have 54 of these 12-metre-diameter antennas, and twelve 7-metre antennas. However, early scientific observations with a partial array already began in 2011. Even though it is not fully constructed, the telescope is already producing outstanding results, outperforming all other telescopes of its kind. Some of the antennas are blurred in the photograph, as the telescope was in operation and moving during the shot.
Credit: ESO, Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)
[url=http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1253a/][size=120][b][i]Whirling Southern Star Trails over ALMA[/i][/b][/size][/url]
ESO Picture of the Week | 2012 Dec 31
[quote]
[float=right][url=http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/screen/potw1253a.jpg][img]http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/medium/potw1253a.jpg[/img][/url][hr][/hr][/float]Babak Tafreshi, one of the [url=http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/partnerships/photo-ambassadors.html][b]ESO Photo Ambassadors[/b][/url], has captured the antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) under the southern sky in another breathtaking image.
The dramatic whorls of stars in the sky are reminiscent of [url=http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starryindex.html][b]van Gogh’s Starry Night[/b][/url], or — for science fiction fans — perhaps the view from a spacecraft about to enter hyperspace. In reality, though, they show the rotation of the Earth, revealed by the photograph’s long exposure. In the southern hemisphere, as the Earth turns, the stars appear to move in circles around the south celestial pole, which lies in the dim constellation of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octans][b]Octans[/b][/url] (The Octant), between the more famous Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds. With a long enough exposure, the stars mark out circular trails as they move.
The photograph was taken on the Chajnantor Plateau, at an altitude of 5000 metres in the Chilean Andes. This is the site of the [url=http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/alma.html][b]ALMA[/b][/url] telescope, whose antennas can be seen in the foreground. ALMA is the most powerful telescope for observing the cool Universe — molecular gas and dust, as well as the relic radiation of the Big Bang. When ALMA construction is complete in 2013, the telescope will have 54 of these 12-metre-diameter antennas, and twelve 7-metre antennas. However, early scientific observations with a partial array already began in 2011. Even though it is not fully constructed, the telescope is already producing outstanding results, outperforming all other telescopes of its kind. Some of the antennas are blurred in the photograph, as the telescope was in operation and moving during the shot.
[b][i]Credit: ESO, [url=http://www.twanight.org/tafreshi]Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)[/url][/i][/b] [/quote]