APOD: Tetons and Snake River, Planet Earth (2014 Aug 01)
Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 4:06 am
Tetons and Snake River, Planet EarthExplanation: An alluring night skyscape, this scene looks west across the Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA, Planet Earth. The Snake River glides through the foreground, while above the Tetons' rugged mountain peaks the starry sky is laced with exceptionally strong red and green airglow. That night, the luminous atmospheric glow was just faintly visible to the eye, its color and wavey structure captured only by a sensitive digital camera. In fact, this contemporary digital photograph matches the location and perspective of a well-known photograph from 1942 - The Tetons and The Snake River, by Ansel Adams, renown photographer of the American West. Adams' image is one of 115 images stored on the Voyager Golden Record. Humanity's message in a bottle, golden records were onboard both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977 and now headed toward interstellar space.
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An APOD from our neck of the woods. I could practically it a golf ball into the Snake River from here but I usually try not to. I remember skiing at Jackson Hole 
when I was younger. The tram ride to the top of mountain ends in a cliff on one side and a "not much different" slope on the side you ski down. 
That valley floor catches up with you pretty quickly. Gravity in action. Although in those days some might have attributed the sky colors to a different phenomenon known to the 70's. What did they call it - "chemo" luminescence? Suppose not. None-the-less great image of the good ol' Rocky Mountain highway to the sky and a nice reflection on its photographic history.