Explanation: First came the trees. In the town of Salamanca, Spain, the photographer noticed how distinctive a grove of oak trees looked after being pruned. Next came the galaxy. The photographer stayed up until 2 am, waiting until the Milky Way Galaxy rose above the level of a majestic looking oak. From this carefully chosen perspective, dust lanes in the galaxy appear to be natural continuations to branches of the tree. Last came the light. A flashlight was used on the far side of the tree to project a silhouette. By coincidence, other trees also appeared as similar silhouettes across the relatively bright horizon. The featured image was captured as a single 30-second frame earlier this month and processed to digitally enhance the Milky Way.
Was there really Pallas? I confirmed it had been there around May 2015.
Re: APOD: The Galaxy Tree (2018 Dec 30)
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 7:29 am
by Boomer12k
At least the trees are not lonely with all those stars over head...
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Re: APOD: The Galaxy Tree (2018 Dec 30)
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:54 am
by heehaw
Of course, the Galaxy does not look like that to the naked eye --- wish it did (but that would take some doing!). But the naked eye does really show us the Galaxy clearly; albeit in black-and-white. I vividly remember my first trip to South America and seeing the Magellanic Clouds for the first time: very impressive indeed: they look like chunks of the Milky Way that have separated off and gone on their merry way. Of course we now know that the opposite is the case; they are on their way to eventual merger with the Milky Way.
Re: APOD: The Galaxy Tree (2018 Dec 30)
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 2:18 pm
by Chris Peterson
RET wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 6:32 am
Was there really Pallas? I confirmed it had been there around May 2015.
Yes, this is a Sunday repeat. The original APOD was from 25 May 2015. The caption could use a little tweaking.
The Galaxy Tree
