APOD: From the Northern to the Southern Cross (2014 Jan 27)

[APOD Robot]

From the Northern to the Southern Cross

Explanation: There is a road that connects the Northern to the Southern Cross but you have to be at the right place and time to see it. The road, as pictured above, is actually the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy; the right place, in this case, is dark Laguna Cejar in Salar de Atacama of Northern Chile; and the right time was in early October, just after sunset. Many sky wonders were captured then, including the bright Moon, inside the Milky Way arch; Venus, just above the Moon; Saturn and Mercury, just below the Moon; the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds satellite galaxies, on the far left; red airglow near the horizon on the image left; and the lights of small towns at several locations across the horizon. One might guess that composing this 30-image panorama would have been a serene experience, but for that one would have required earplugs to ignore the continued brays of wild donkeys.

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[neufer]

[b][size=200][color=#0000FF]Rucio[/color][/size][/b]

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Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[Ann]

Ah yes, from Cygnus to Crux! Nice!

And donkeys are cute. :aaah:

Ann

[geckzilla]

The note about the braying donkeys at the end puzzles me. I suppose Nicholas had the experience of listening to these donkeys all night? Either that, or Chile in general is overrun with the beasts.

[Boomer12k]

Such an amazing sky we have...so many wondrous things to observe and learn from....The Universe teaches us some awesome things.

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[Boomer12k]

"bray of wild donkeys..."

He TAKES ONE for Science...a real Trooper....

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[Nitpicker]

Nice APOD. The South Celestial Pole is also in frame, between the galactic arch and the two Magellanic clouds, at about the same elevation as Alpha Centauri. The donkeys probably think it wonderfully serene, until a human turns up to do mysterious things in the dark. I imagine I'd make some funny noises if a donkey turned up in my backyard whilst I was going about my business.

[starsurfer]

Looking at this image is certainly a serene experience!

[HellCat]

Gorgeous photograph. A bit tough for us amateurs to pick out Saturn and Jupiter, however.

More to the point, the semicolons are overused. A semicolon separates what could normally become two sentences. A colon is used at the end of a sentence to demarcate the beginning of a list. The components of that list should be separated by commas.

Check this resource: strunk and white's elements of style

Keep up the great work.

PS - NOT an English major; but I write one on TV. (small joke)

[Nitpicker]

Gorgeous photograph. A bit tough for us amateurs to pick out Saturn and Jupiter, however.

More to the point, the semicolons are overused. A semicolon separates what could normally become two sentences. A colon is used at the end of a sentence to demarcate the beginning of a list. The components of that list should be separated by commas.

Check this resource: strunk and white's elements of style

Keep up the great work.

PS - NOT an English major; but I write one on TV. (small joke)

Jupiter is not in frame (which should make it easier to not pick out).

The OED and I disagree with you on the use of semicolons, which have a few uses. One use is in separating complex lists, where each component may also include commas. This APOD explanation uses them for this purpose.

[Alexpuff]

Ha! Still nothing on APOD about Pinnacle Island: conspiracy !

[n.igma]

A wonderful and thought provoking image. Also it is the best image I have seen that demonstrates most clearly the high inclination of the plane of the solar system relative to the the galactic plane. Truly remarkable!

[251billyg]

If a panorama was made of the Milky Way,from the voyager's position outside the solar system-would the Milky Way appear to be a circle ? I would like to see an artists rendition of The Galaxy from a viewpoint unobstructed by the earths horizon.

[Guest]

Gorgeous photograph. A bit tough for us amateurs to pick out Saturn and Jupiter, however.

More to the point, the semicolons are overused. A semicolon separates what could normally become two sentences. A colon is used at the end of a sentence to demarcate the beginning of a list. The components of that list should be separated by commas.

Check this resource: strunk and white's elements of style

Keep up the great work.

PS - NOT an English major; but I write one on TV. (small joke)

If we are to be pedantic, I think that should be Strunk and White's Elements of Style - note UTS Style Publication Guide: Capitalisation http://www.gsu.uts.edu.au/publications/ ... ation.html

Seriously, I visit APOD for an Astronomy lesson, rather than a grammar lesson. I suspect the majority do so with a similar objective.

[Nitpicker]

If a panorama was made of the Milky Way,from the voyager's position outside the solar system-would the Milky Way appear to be a circle ? I would like to see an artists rendition of The Galaxy from a viewpoint unobstructed by the earths horizon.

From Wikipedia:

Click to view full size image

A detailed caption for this image may be found here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... a_(by).jpg

[Boomer12k]

It is interesting....."upside down" for us "Northerners"....there is STILL A PIPE NEBULA AT THE TOP!!!!!


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[Nitpicker]

Ha! Still nothing on APOD about Pinnacle Island: conspiracy !

Possibly because not a whole lot of science has yet been done on this curiosity near Opportunity. It appears to be a mainstream news story only at this stage. One of the better examples I've seen is this:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... rd-photos/

I assume the rock was named Pinnacle Island after the alternative name for the Senkaku Islands, a very contentious bit of real estate.

[BDanielMayfield]

Extremely colorful APOD. Very nice.

Ha! Still nothing on APOD about Pinnacle Island: conspiracy !

But it is being discussed in one of the hidden back rooms:
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32800

Seriously, I visit APOD for an Astronomy lesson, rather than a grammar lesson. I suspect the majority do so with a similar objective.

[kchoekstra]

Question! Is this how the human eye sees it or have the photos been enhanced? If this is actual I would so want to experience this view.

[neufer]

Question! Is this how the human eye sees it or have the photos been enhanced?
If this is actual I would so want to experience this view.

• Be careful with the pisco sour!

[b][color=#0000FF][size=175]'Ojos del Salar' (Eyes :owl: of the Salt Pan)[/size][/color][/b]

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Wikitravel: Laguna Cejar

<<This is one amazing location... in summer! Set in the northern tip of the Atacama salt pan, this location offers a splendid panorama of the Andes, and the possibility to bathe in waters as salty as those of the Dead Sea. The landscape's also remarkable. It usually ends with sunset, along a simple cocktail with pisco sour. The tour sets off at variable times (since Chile follows DST), but always in the afternoon, around 3-4 PM. Besides the Cejar and Piedra lagoons, excursions usually stop by the 'Ojos del Salar' (Eyes of the Salt Pan), two freshwater eyes very close together, and lake Tebenquinche, a water mirror that offers the absolute best sunsets in the whole area-imagine the mountains slowly changing colors, from yellow to pink, and that same image reflected on the lake's perfect surface! You can get there by bike, but bear in mind that it's a long ride: 50km for the round-trip, with the sun burning your scalp without any mercy. There are shorter paths, but the safest is the main road; to get there, just ask where the customs ('aduana') are, and then travel south until you see a sign that reads 'Laguna Cejar'. The road's paved, and drivers are accustomed to see bikers on it. Wear bright clothing (red, blue and yellow work best), just in case. If you plan on going, please consider the following:

• Sun protection is a must. Cejar's environs are of a pure, perfect white, which tends to obscenely reflect light.
  
  Even if you can't swim, the water of Piedra lagoon ensures you'll never drown. People float like feathers on it. It might be worth a try.
  
  The water is cold. From October to March, this will be quite welcome, but not so much in winter. There is an upside to traveling in the latter season-some birds, like flamingos, migrate there (June-August).
  
  Always ask whether freshwater's included in the fee. Virtually all agencies carry some, but ask the guide and driver again, just in case. It's necessary to remove the coating of salt that will cover your body after taking a plunge. If not removed, it can cause an unpleasant itch. When desperate, you can always try swimming in the Ojos del Salar.
  
  Be careful with the pisco sour! Normally, agencies send just enough for two glasses per visitor, but sometimes it can be more. As it's sweet and sour, it can be very misleading-the usual liquor used for this has between 35 and 40 proof alcohol. Unsurprisingly, tourists are quite chatty on the way back to San Pedro.>>

[Chris Peterson]

Question! Is this how the human eye sees it or have the photos been enhanced? If this is actual I would so want to experience this view.

Our eyes are not sensitive enough to see the view this way. Visually, the sky would appear nearly black, with a slight gray background glow, just a little brighter around the airglow and above the towns. The Milky Way looks the same there as it does from any dark site: a gray band across the sky. The only evident color would be the subtle range of warm whites to pale blues that stars show.

[geckzilla]

Seriously, I visit APOD for an Astronomy lesson, rather than a grammar lesson. I suspect the majority do so with a similar objective.

You'd be surprised at how many conversations about grammar, semantics, Latin genitives, or just plain how to spell happen here.

[neufer]

Is this how the human eye sees it or have the photos been enhanced?
If this is actual I would so want to experience this view.

Visually, the sky would appear nearly black, with a slight gray background glow, just a little brighter around the airglow and above the towns. The Milky Way looks the same there as it does from any dark site: a gray band across the sky. The only evident color would be the subtle range of warm whites to pale blues that stars show.

All this might vary with the number of pisco sours consumed!

[Beyond]

Might

[neufer]

Our constellations (Orion, Cancer, etc) -- how many are they all located in our Milky Way Galaxy?

In the sense of today's APOD:

Cygnus, Lacerta, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Auriga, Orion/Gemini, Monoceros, Canis Major, Puppus, Vela, Carina, Crux
/ Musca, Centaurus, Circinus, Lupus/Norma, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, Scutum, Aquila, Sagitta, Vulpecula.

http://media.skysurvey.org/interactive360/index.html