APOD: A Journey Through the Night Sky (2011 May 20)

[APOD Robot]

A Journey Through the Night Sky

Explanation: Majestic nebulae and stars of our Milky Way Galaxy stretch across this panoramic image of the entire night sky. At full resolution, the 5 gigapixel mosaic was stitched together from over 37,000 images, the result of a season following, year long effort and 60,000 travel miles in search of still dark skies in the American west and the western Cape of South Africa. The well-planned project combined many exposures from the dark sites, intended to produce an inspiring view of the night to rival the brightness of day. An interactive journey through the scene will uncover a congeries of innumerable stars with vast clouds of gas and dust strewn along the galactic plane and central bulge, too faint to see with the unaided eye. Even galaxies of stars beyond our Milky Way can be found within the cosmic vista.

<< Previous APOD

Discuss Any APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

[alter-ego]

A nice dream-come-true for a fellow from one of the most clouded areas in the country. A real inspiration if you ask me.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/communit ... 86019.html

[Beyond]

The -through the scene- was really neat! Scroll in or out. I even saw the name Rick and some other letters on the first scroll-in.

[Ann]

Try this: http://skysurvey.org/

Ann

[bactame]

A nice image with as much detail as you would be able to handle can be collected and then using Irfanview.exe the image can be enlarged as much as you might want and labels added to remind yourself why the image was produced.

[bystander]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23532

[orin stepanek]

The -through the scene- was really neat! Scroll in or out. I even saw the name Rick and some other letters on the first scroll-in.

Oh yeah; right on! http://media.skysurvey.org/interactive360/index.html I had fun playing with the interactive setup.

[Star*Hopper]

Now THAT was one hela-astrophotography project! Mega-kudos to Messrs. Risinger & co.
Nominate for APOY (Year) !!

[biddie67]

What an amazing project!! Mr. Risinger's journeys through the night have resulted in a magnificent photographic work. I loved the description on his website of his efforts and the time under the stars with his father . Congratulations to you, sir!!!!

[Craig Willford]

Truly gorgeous! Thanks for the effort and for sharing with us on APOD.

[Jim Leff]

re: the zoom-in interactive: holy crap!

"Google Galaxy"?

[Wolf Kotenberg]

i ask myself, am i really that insignificant ? Pass the ice cold one

[Beyond]

Here ya go, Wolf You're going to need more than one if you can ever grasp just how much is really out there.

[hstarbuck]

What would be the best way to view this to get perspective on our location within the milky way galaxy? It seems like we are looking in at the whole Galaxy from the outside where part should be looking out from the inside. I was thinking that projecting it on the inner surface of a sphere, or more practically a cylinder or hemisphere. Adding in the interactive features one could have fun for hours. Just thoughts.

[Wolf kotenberg]

My head is starting to hurt. It is like doing a 360 from inside a glass bottle, a very big bottle.

[NoelC]

First off, any amateur who can accomplish a "whole sky survey" to this depth and resolution is top dog in my book at least for today (if not for this year).

Secondly, to be able to present it as a zoomable, scrollable interactive display, with or without annotations... Slicker'n snot!

You earn an official WOW!

-Noel

[neufer]

Centaurus A / NGC 5128

---

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Find the Southern Cross and then find
Centaurus A (also known as NGC 5128) in the interactive.

[owlice]

Find the Southern Cross and then find Centaurus A (also known as NGC 5128) in the interactive.

Okay, found it! What'd I win?

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVu6rtT3YH0&NR=1[/youtube]

Find the Southern Cross and then find Centaurus A
(also known as NGC 5128) in the interactive.

Okay, found it! What'd I win?

A poster of Kegasus:

---

[owlice]

Why, thank you! Thank you very much! I suppose I'll have to take your picture down to make room for it... hmm....

[Star*Hopper]

OK....talkin' about misreads, at first glance I thought the lower right corner (poster) said 'Infidelfest'.
(Like with rusty traps, one of the first things to go is the eyebolts.)


\no....u prolly don't get it
\\it's ok

[Star*Hopper]

Neuf....
Sometimes I wonder did you & I grow up next door to each other....and maybe you watched TV thru our window.
Tom Terrific (I luv'd Manfred the Wonder Dog), & now Skiles & Henderson (among many others). I'll bet you (too) can name all the characters on Buster Brown, Howdy Doody, Sky King & the Sealtest Big Top, & prolly remember WinkyDink....maybe even had one of the 'Magic Screens'. (Too.)

[neufer]

Dan Lurie

Neuf....

Sometimes I wonder did you & I grow up next door to each other....and maybe you watched TV thru our window. Tom Terrific (I luv'd Manfred the Wonder Dog), & now Skiles & Henderson (among many others). I'll bet you (too) can name all the characters on Buster Brown, Howdy Doody, Sky King & the Sealtest Big Top, & prolly remember WinkyDink....maybe even had one of the 'Magic Screens'. (Too.)

I think it was generically called 'the baby boom' and there may be more than just us two.

My dad was a big fan of the Sealtest Big Top; I always want to have muscles like Dan Lurie
but I turned out to be more of a Winky Dink (no doubt due to too much TV radiation exposure) :

<<Happy young viewer bathed in radiation from the television as she draws with her magic crayons on her magic screen, 1953. Photo by Walter Sanders. From the Life Magazine archives.

The author has on numerous occasions expounded upon the significance of the cartoon character Winky Dink. Like the star inexplicably attached to his head, Winky Dink's influence shone brightly over the cultural landscape of 1950s America, sparking the creativity of hordes of rapt young viewers, while boosting the bottom line at CBS by selling millions of magic Winky Dink drawing kits at 50 cents a pop. The kits consisted of a box of crayons, a sheet of plastic, and a cloth. The cloth served two purposes. First, rubbing the sheet of plastic (AKA the magic screen) with the cloth generated a charge which would then cause the sheet to stick to the TV screen, similar to the way rubbing a balloon on your hair builds up static electricity that allows you to stick the balloon to the wall. Second, the cloth served as an eraser to clear the magic screen. To the chagrin of many parents, the cloth didn't erase crayon marks from the glass of the TV if Winky Dink's little fans forgot to attach the plastic sheet before drawing.

As the show unfolded, pictures would be displayed for Winky's viewers to complete. Missing elements included such items as Uncle Slim's bowtie, or a bridge or a ladder which would allow Winky to escape a bear attack or some other peril. Sometimes, the missing piece of the picture was presented as a connect-the-dots puzzle.>>

[Star*Hopper]

Honestly, WinkyDink is where I learned that wet rawhide stretches -- that's perhaps the most prominent memory I carry of the show. Yep - captured by Indians, they had him all tied up & whilst preparing some nefarious prelude to Winky's demise, I drew the requisite bucket wherein he placed his bindings & was able to slip free & escape. Where the water in the bucket came from I'll never know....(there was a LOT of magic involved *LOL*) but I felt like I had single-handedly saved Wink & hence, the show.

Another piece of historical trivia....WinkyDink technology may well have led to the first color TVs - did y'all know that? Yep.....Dad showed up one day with another type of 'Magic Screen' - same type of plastic as Winky's, except it had 3 horizontal semitransparent stripes; blue across the top (sky), green bottom (grass), & a sickly-red across the middle for?....flesh, natch! We were 'first-on-our-block' to have one, & neighbors used to flock to our house to watch 'color tv'....thought it was the greatest thing since [insert metaphor of choice here].

Yes, the 50's were confusing times....& apparently, folks were easily entertained.
Or perhaps the word should be, 'distracted'. (A key ingredient for 'magic', don'tcha know.)

[borja55]

I am now experiencing s strange phenomenon in that my safari browser is bracketed with TECH.web and it is attached to this picture. Is anyone else having this experience? I cannot get this off of my Apple and it is disruptive to browsing. HELP?!