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Largest true-color photograph of the night sky ever

media.skysurvey.org

11–20 of 61 posts

Re: Largest true-color photograph of the night sky ever

#14
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's the plane of our galaxy. If you click show constellations and objects, you can see where we are in the spiral, bottom left.

Interesting, I haven't seen this clustering from looking at the sky before - is it because this is more sensitive than the naked eye?

You can see it in areas with little light pollution (although not quite like this image), otherwise most of the stars are too faint.

Re: Largest true-color photograph of the night sky ever

#16
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's the plane of our galaxy. If you click show constellations and objects, you can see where we are in the spiral, bottom left.

Interesting, I haven't seen this clustering from looking at the sky before - is it because this is more sensitive than the naked eye?

This is one of the downsides of living in a heavily populated area. It's quite visible once you get away from the light pollution around cities.

Re: Largest true-color photograph of the night sky ever

#17
post #5
post #4

Is there a reason why it appears more populated and dense in the middle as opposed to the upper or lower regions? Is that the plane of our galaxy, or something to do with the light?

Yes, it's the plane of our galaxy. If you click show constellations and objects, you can see where we are in the spiral, bottom left.

What is the "shadow" that appears to go across the plane in a very irregular manner? Is there a local dust cloud obscuring parts of the main plane?

Re: Largest true-color photograph of the night sky ever

#18

I wish there was an easy way to save the current view as a PNG. I could set it to full screen and use Print Screen, but the app icon and interface buttons would need to be edited out.

You could probably shift the view up a bit, take a second screenshot and stitch the two together well enough for a wallpaper.

Re: Largest true-color photograph of the night sky ever

#19
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's the plane of our galaxy. If you click show constellations and objects, you can see where we are in the spiral, bottom left.

What is the "shadow" that appears to go across the plane in a very irregular manner? Is there a local dust cloud obscuring parts of the main plane?

It's the Great Rift http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Rift_(astronomy)

Re: Largest true-color photograph of the night sky ever

#20
post #10

No WP/Android version => failure.

Really? The project is an abject failure because it was made available without an Android or Windows Phone version? Sure it would be cool if it had one, but I think there are enough people out there with access to desktop browsers or iOS devices to make it at least marginally worthwhile!
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