Starship Asterisk*

RedFishBlueFish wrote: The book's cover art shows the Little Prince standing on The Little Planet and is, as far as I know, the origin of the name of this photographic projection.

Boomer12k wrote:Awesome way to see Earth's Shadow...did not know you could do that....WOW!!!

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Beyond wrote:So that's what that bluishness is that you see in the east after sunset and in the west before sunrise, IF you get up early enough, which i don't usually do. Shirley someone must have mentioned it here before and i missed it.

Nitpicker wrote:Clever photography. Stop it! You're giving me ideas!

jambo wrote:Is there a geometric shape to the outermost layer of light?

BDanielMayfield wrote:Was this image taken with a fisheye camera lens pointed straight down, or was the image created from other more typical images that were then processed into this image?

BDanielMayfield wrote:

BDanielMayfield wrote:Was this image taken with a fisheye camera lens pointed straight down, or was the image created from other more typical images that were then processed into this image?

Ah, I guess since the description says it was a mosaic the latter would be the case, but I’d still like to learn what kind of lens was used and how it was produced.

Chris Peterson wrote:

Beyond wrote:So that's what that bluishness is that you see in the east after sunset and in the west before sunrise, IF you get up early enough, which i don't usually do. Shirley someone must have mentioned it here before and i missed it.

???

The Belt of Venus has been featured in dozens of APODs over the years, I and many others have submitted our own images for discussion, and the subject comes up fairly regularly. Not sure how you could have missed it.

And who the heck is Shirley?

petsie wrote:
Oh my! If our planet would look as green as in this image!!
IIRC the area covered by forest reduced (here in germany) to ~30 percent compared to ancient times

neufer wrote:

petsie wrote:
Oh my! If our planet would look as green as in this image!!
IIRC the area covered by forest reduced (here in germany) to ~30 percent compared to ancient times

But some of those ancient forests were black.

BMAONE23 wrote:

neufer wrote:

petsie wrote:
Oh my! If our planet would look as green as in this image!!
IIRC the area covered by forest reduced (here in germany) to ~30 percent compared to ancient times

But some of those ancient forests were black.

This reads as though our world is greening
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index ... -cause-it/


Note: red areas indicate an increase in plant growth

References

Lo, T.-T. and H.-H. Hsu. 2010. Change in the dominant decadal patterns and the late 1980s abrupt warming in the extratropical Northern Hemisphere. Atmospheric Science Letters, 11, 210–215.

Liu, S., R. Liu, and Y. Liu. 2010. Spatial and temporal variation of global LAI during 1981–2006. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 20, 323-332.

rstevenson wrote:

BDanielMayfield wrote:

BDanielMayfield wrote:Was this image taken with a fisheye camera lens pointed straight down, or was the image created from other more typical images that were then processed into this image?

Ah, I guess since the description says it was a mosaic the latter would be the case, but I’d still like to learn what kind of lens was used and how it was produced.

If the photographer is willing to share instructions, that'd be great. But in the meantime, a search yielded this page from the PhotographyMad site.

Rob

geckzilla wrote:If you're going to post a skeptic link, I'm going to post a skeptic skeptic link. You can follow it up with a skeptic skeptic skeptic link and so on until we get tired of this.

geckzilla wrote:
If you're going to post a skeptic link, I'm going to post a skeptic skeptic link.
You can follow it up with a skeptic skeptic skeptic link and so on until we get tired of this.
http://skepticalscience.com/ridley-murd ... rming.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain#Forests_and_other_vegetation wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF]Effect of acid rain on a forest, Jizera Mountains, Czech Republic[/color][/b]

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<<Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids. Governments have made efforts since the 1970s to reduce the release of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere with positive results.

Adverse effects may be indirectly related to acid rain, like the acid's effects on soil (see above) or high concentration of gaseous precursors to acid rain. High altitude forests are especially vulnerable as they are often surrounded by clouds and fog which are more acidic than rain.

Other plants can also be damaged by acid rain, but the effect on food crops is minimized by the application of lime and fertilizers to replace lost nutrients. In cultivated areas, limestone may also be added to increase the ability of the soil to keep the pH stable, but this tactic is largely unusable in the case of wilderness lands. When calcium is leached from the needles of red spruce, these trees become less cold tolerant and exhibit winter injury and even death.>>

neufer wrote:

geckzilla wrote:
If you're going to post a skeptic link, I'm going to post a skeptic skeptic link.
You can follow it up with a skeptic skeptic skeptic link and so on until we get tired of this.
http://skepticalscience.com/ridley-murd ... rming.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-s ... 38896.html
http://www.michaelshermer.com/2009/08/s ... /#more-918