Starship Asterisk*

What's the deal APOD? For the last two days we see tons of pics of the big solar storm on network news, and all the commentators are all over it, but you're continuing to show one humdrum nebula shot after another. Can we be more relevant?

The wierdest thing to me about this photo is the dark forground surface. It appears to be water but it slopes towards the waterfall. If you juxtaposition the photo so the surface is horizontal then the water wouldn't be falling straight down. If it's not water then where is the water from the waterf...

I found the hyperlink for 'Kepler's prediction' particularly interesting. I'd heard that the moons were predicted long before they were actually discovered but was disappointed to find out why--and I always thought so much of Kepler! The real punch line is at the end of the story where the Aristotel...

This is a little late, but I camped at Treeline at Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, 30 years ago and the stars looked like a mirror image of Jasper village below. It was quite an experience. So .. to get to Jasper Avenue, turn left at Andromeda. The first time I really took notice of the nigh...

The sky at about 3000m is magnificent. At 4000 to 5000 m it more difficult, due to the lack of oxygen in your blood. This may explain why I've been more impressed with dark skies near sea level than when camping at 3000m. Someone who's used to higher altitudes and in really good shape, like Serge B...

Translated: Indeed, the stars are visible!!!!!!!!!!!! The sky at about 3000m is magnificent. At 4000 to 5000 m it more difficult, due to the lack of oxygen in your blood. But in all these cases the stars are visible at these high altitudes. Atmospheric scintillation /dispersion has nothing to do wi...

The size (length, width, radius) of such a cell is therefore about 2E-6 m, that is the same order of magnitude as the center part of the Airy disk. Thus the limitations of optics (i.e. ideal optics) will cause diffraction of a point source, and spread the light out over at least one cell. So the pr...

Can astronauts aboard the international space station see stars? All the pictures (obviously taken by a camera) of the space station show a dark sky in the background. A little disturbing isn't it? "All" the short-exposure shots I've ever seen from space (and the moon) are also black-skie...

A good test is picture #12 of Serge Brunier, just above the 500 hPa level: http://www.sergebrunier.com/gallerie/paysages-nocturnes/source/12.html The Nikon camera he used is comparable -regarding to optics- to the human eye. I looked at the image. Spectacular, and I have to admire the fortitude to ...

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I got the gist of what you were saying, but I had trouble keeping up with the optics. I'll have to dig out a textbook tonight. Obviously, my recollections of human eye limitations are equally rusty. Therefore there is no reason why one should not see stars at hig...

The quote button I figured out, now I just need to figure out the 'edit' part--when I'm not on company time. I've never treked the CO rockies, but have been all over northern Idaho, North Cascades, and the Beartooths in WY and MT. Love the night sky there--abosolutely nothing around. Packing my 10&q...

rookie mistake--my apologies.

Just joined the forum today.

Please follow this thread under the other Apr 23 APOD posting

The minimum-sized image the naked eye, if I recall correctly, is 2 arc seconds (maybe 0.2??), which is much bigger than a star's dia. The atmosphere spreads starlight to a large enough size for the eye to see. My question is, if the point of light is smaller than the eye can resolve, can it resolve ...

Of course the human eye and brain gather and interpret light in real time and in a much different manor than a telescope, so what I was told is quite possible. I was unable to see stars from a 12,000-ft peak once, but the reason could've been ambient light. I don't see how less atmosphere would aff...

Of course the human eye and brain gather and interpret light in real time and in a much different manor than a telescope, so what I was told is quite possible. I was unable to see stars from a 12,000-ft peak once, but the reason could've been ambient light. Forgive me for cluttering the forum with a...

APOD Apr 23 explanation says "your view of the world at night could look like this." Is that true? I was told by someone who viisted Mauna Kea that at 13,000 feet, you don't see many stars with the naked eye because there's not enough atmosphere to disperse the light. His tour group had to...

Caption says "your view of the world at night could look like this." Is that true? I was told by someone who viisted Mauna Kea that at 13,000 feet, you don't see many stars with the naked eye because there's not enough atmosphere to disperse the light. His tour group had to go to a lower e...