Re: APOD: The Milky Way Over Monument Valley (2012 Aug 01)
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 6:38 pm
I'm rather proud of myself. I have more trouble getting oriented in a picture than when I'm looking at the sky. I tried to find stars and constellations in this picture, but the number of stars visible, the similar brightnesses of stars in the image, and the slight blurring of each star (is this because it's a time lapse picture?) made it hard to identify my familiar first- and second-magnitude friends. Then I saw the North America nebula, and was able to work my way south from there, recognizing the brighter nebulae and clusters. When I read Ann's expertly guided tour, I was pleased that I had correctly identified all the deep sky objects I recognized, mostly Messier objects. It's good to be at home in the sky.Ann wrote:This is a very beautiful picture. We may note that, unlike other pictures taken of this area, this one has been made with a technique that doesn't emphasize the bright stars. That makes it harder to pick out the constellations, but you can more easily see some other features.
One of the easiest deep-sky objects in this picture is the North America Nebula, right above the most obvious "mitten" formation on the ground. Just above the North America Nebula (but not "touching" it) is Deneb, the alpha star in constellation Cygnus. ...
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As I said, this is a great picture! I agree that there is something otherworldly about it. It does look like a good landing site for UFOs!![]()
Ann