APOD: Laguna Starry Sky (2018 Jan 27)

[APOD Robot]

Laguna Starry Sky

Explanation: Staring toward the heavens, one of the many lagunas in the Atacama Desert salt flat calmly reflects a starry night sky near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, planet Earth. Cosmic rifts of dust, star clouds, and nebulae of the central Milky Way galaxy are rising in the east, beyond a volcanic horizon. Caught in the six frame panorama serenely recorded in the early morning hours of January 15, planets Jupiter and Mars are close. Near the ecliptic, the bright planets are immersed in the Solar System's visible band of Zodiacal light extending up and left from the galactic center. Above the horizon to the south (right) are the Large and Small clouds of Magellan, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.

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[Boomer12k]

Wonderful...

Unfortunately on the 31st, I think the weather is not going to be conducive for the Lunar Eclipse here....

Here is hoping to maybe get a glimpse...

:---[===] *

[Ann]

Great image!

It's a pity that the Lagoon Nebula is just below that mountain range where the Milky Way seems to dip behind it at center left. Wouldn't it have been fun if the Lagoon Nebula had been reflected in the lagoon?

But there are plenty of other sights to be seen in the image. White Jupiter and pinkish-orange Mars form a straight line with Delta Scorpii and Antares, all of them immersed in the pearly white glow of the Zodiacal light. White and bluish Alpha and Beta Centauri stand out as gate-keepers in the band of the Milky Way. Blue-looking Canopus shines brilliantly at far right, with the Large Magellanic Cloud to its left and the Small Cloud of Magellan getting lost in bright yellow light pollution near the horizon. Strikingly blue stars of the Sco-Cen association decorate the sky at top center, with Eta Centauri at left and Alpha Lupi pretty much exactly at top center.

What a nice image!

Ann

[Joe Stieber]

... Blue-looking Capella shines brilliantly at far right, with the Large Magellanic Cloud to its left ...

I suspect Capella is a typo -- I'm sure you meant Canopus.

[Ann]

... Blue-looking Capella shines brilliantly at far right, with the Large Magellanic Cloud to its left ...

I suspect Capella is a typo -- I'm sure you meant Canopus.

Of course!!! Thanks!!!

Going to edit it now...

I may add, now that I'm (almost) back to my normal Color Commentator mode, that Canopus really is quite blue for an F-type star. Its B-V index is 0.164, which is bluer than the B-V index of A-type star Altair (0.221). And of course, it is much bluer than the Sun (0.653).

Ann

[snuggs28]

Is that streak in the upper middle of the picture, a Airplane, Satellite, or a meteor?

[macsinus]

Beautiful image, worthy of APOD's high standards.
Didn't know that surface water pools exist in the Atacama.

Off-topic question: is it just by chance that the ecliptic appears to be pretty much at a right-angle to the plane of our galaxy, or are there gravitational/rotational reasons?
Are other discovered planetary systems similarly aligned?

[rstevenson]

... Off-topic question: is it just by chance that the ecliptic appears to be pretty much at a right-angle to the plane of our galaxy, or are there gravitational/rotational reasons? ...

From this short explanation...

... The galactic plane is tilted at an angle of 63 degrees to the celestial equator and at an angle of 60 degrees to the ecliptic (the path of the Sun on the sky). All three coordinate systems have poles which point in different directions on the sky.

I believe the current wisdom is that the plane of rotation of any stellar system is unrelated to the galaxy's plane of rotation, and is most influenced by random factors during the formation of the stellar system.

Rob

[Chris Peterson]

Off-topic question: is it just by chance that the ecliptic appears to be pretty much at a right-angle to the plane of our galaxy, or are there gravitational/rotational reasons?
Are other discovered planetary systems similarly aligned?

The ecliptic and the galactic plane are oriented at 63° to one another, and there's no reason other than chance.

[neufer]

Off-topic question: is it just by chance that the ecliptic appears to be pretty much at a right-angle to the plane of our galaxy, or are there gravitational/rotational reasons? Are other discovered planetary systems similarly aligned?

The ecliptic and the galactic plane are oriented at 63° to one another, and there's no reason other than chance.

<<According to the Jain cosmology, the Salakapurusa "illustrious or worthy persons" are 63 illustrious beings who appear during each half-time cycle. They are also known as the triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣa (63 illustrious persons). The Salakapurusa comprise 24 Tirthankaras (Teaching Gods), twelve Chakravartin (universal monarchs, emperors of six continents), nine Balabhadras (gentle heroes), nine Narayanas (warrior heroes) and nine Prati-narayanas (anti-heroes). According to Jain cosmology, time is without beginning and eternal. The Kālacakra, the cosmic wheel of time, rotates ceaselessly. The wheel of time is divided into two half-rotations, Utsarpiṇī or ascending time cycle and Avasarpiṇī, the descending time cycle, occurring continuously after each other. Utsarpiṇī is a period of progressive prosperity and happiness where the time spans and ages are at an increasing scale while the Avasarpiṇī is a period of increasing sorrow and immorality with decline in time spans of the epochs. During each such time cycle, these 63 illustrious persons appear and establish the religion and order in society. According to Jain cosmology, since time is eternal, infinite kalacakras have elapsed and will occur in future and hence infinite sets of these 63 illustrious persons have appeared, and will appear, to establish order and religion in their respective eras.>>

[macsinus]

Glad that's cleared up!
Thanks for all your answers.