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vangogh
12-18-2009, 08:53 PM
Pretty cool video for anyone interested in space. It starts looking down over Mount Everest and then pulls back into space until it reaches the edges of the known Universe. Then it takes you back to Earth.

Here's the video of The Known Universe (http://www.amnh.org/news/2009/12/the-known-universe/). It's at the bottom of the page.

Amazing how small we are within all that we know and who knows how much more is out there that we don't know.

Enjoy.

Spider
12-18-2009, 10:11 PM
Cool! Now if I could only find that pair of socks my wife lost in the laundry lasy week!!!!

Business Attorney
12-18-2009, 11:38 PM
Great video, vangogh. I have already forwarded it to my extended family. Thanks.

vangogh
12-19-2009, 02:25 AM
Frederick I think I saw them in Andromeda. I could swear I saw them floating by when we passed the galaxy.

David it is a great video, isn't it? It popped up in my feed reader and I figured people here might enjoy it. It's amazing what a small part of the known universe we are.

nealrm
12-19-2009, 12:39 PM
My only question is "How did they send a camera out that far and get it back?"

vangogh
12-19-2009, 12:56 PM
They put in a call to the aliens and had them film everything.

cbscreative
12-19-2009, 01:06 PM
That was a really cool diversion from my work, thanks. I do find space fascinating, though not quite enough to be an astronomer. I enjoy learning about it though.

KarenB
12-19-2009, 01:28 PM
Absolutely amazing and very timely for me since I just bought my beloved this super-duper telescope for Xmas!

I'll send him this link AFTER he has opened his present!

KB
:)

vangogh
12-20-2009, 12:47 AM
So we'll see him here on Christmas day then. I don't have a telescope, but I do have a cool app for my iPhone. I can point the phone at the sky and a star map appears on the screen matching what I see in the sky where I'm pointing. You can zoom in or out on different stars and other astronomical objects and get more information about many.

They have some other apps that let you remotely control a telescope with the phone.

Steve I've taken a few astronomy classes, though I'm hardly an amateur astronomer. One day I'd like to get a nice telescope and get more into it. I was thinking of learning to capture some nice images of the sky.

cbscreative
12-20-2009, 05:15 PM
Vangogh, you must have some outlying areas where light pollution is not an issue. With your elevation, that probably helps for star gazing.

I've not taken classes, but I do have a few book on the subject, and often get distracted whenever an astonomy type article gets featured in the news blips. I typically read them no matter how busy I am.

On a completely unrelated note, here is a good reason to watch the typing very carefully. When I went to type the word busy above, my fumble fingers typed busty because of a slip. Fortunately, I felt the slip and caught the typo before I completed it. It did provide a chuckle because if it had gone unnoticed. I would have said, "No matter how busty I am." Just think, I could have been featured on one of those comics that lowestbidder has threatened us all with. And now I've gone and blown the whistle on myself for something no one would have ever known about.

vangogh
12-20-2009, 09:52 PM
In Boulder itself we do have light pollution though hardly to the extent of larger cities. It's easy enough to find a place with near no light pollution. Just a short walk into the mountains should do it.

None of the astronomy classes I took were here though. They were back in New York. I took on in Buffalo and while there was a ton of light pollution in general our teacher had built a very small observatory (basically a 6 foot x 6 foot box with a telescope) on the edge of campus.

KristineS
12-21-2009, 12:47 PM
I love this sort of thing. Astronomy is one of my passions, although I stunk at the class when I took it in college. I just love looking at the stars and planets.

That's one thing I regret about buying my new condo. I moved into town and it is not good for stargazing. My old place was out in the boonies more and was awesome for looking at the stars.

cbscreative
12-21-2009, 01:16 PM
Back in the early 80's, a Bible study group I was involved with volunteered a week at a day camp which I was able to take advantage of and join them for a couple of summers (83-84). The camp was on a large lake about 5 hours drive north of Toronto, Ontario. There were no light pollution sources for 100's of miles.

I have never before or since seen such a beautiful night sky. We would go out on the lake at night in a canoe to the island that was approx 1/4 mile from shore just to take in the view. The thick band looking into the Orion arm of our galaxy was so intense it was like a lighted cloud streak across the sky.

I can't remember if it was the first or second year, but we had an awesome display of Northern Lights. All these years later, I still look back on that as one of my best memories. I can travel an hour or so north and Michigan is remote enough for great views, but it still can't compare to what I saw in Ontario.

vangogh
12-21-2009, 03:18 PM
Years ago I was driving a friend to his college apartment in update New York. We were on a deserted highway with practically 0 light pollution. My headlights might have been the only light for miles. Suddenly he told me to pull over. At first I thought something happened, but I pulled into the small rest stop (just a small parking lot). We both got out of the car and he told me to look up. I did and we both walked to the front of my car, climbed up on the hood, and stared at the sky for a couple of hours.

I have never seen so many stars in the sky since. The sky was so dense with them that you couldn't find even the most common constellations. The milk way was clearly visible. Meteors shot across the sky. Just a beautiful night.

We really did look up at the the sky for hours even though we'd been in a hurry to get to his place. One of the most memorable nights of my life.

cbscreative
12-21-2009, 03:43 PM
Amazing how something so simple as a clear view of the heavens at night can provide such a sense of awe and burn the experience into your memory for a lifetime. It has a way of doing that though.

KristineS
12-21-2009, 05:06 PM
My Aunt and Uncle have a place on a small lake in the U.P. Only about five or six houses, on dirt roads with no light pollution. At night you can go and sit on the dock and the dark is so dense it's like velvet. The stars are so vivid they shine off the surface of the lake. I've never seen so many stars.

It's kind of a tradition that my aunt and I do that every time I visit. It really helps to remind you how immense the world is and how small the problems you think you have are.

cbscreative
12-22-2009, 09:25 AM
I was going to mention the UP, and Kristine is blessed to be much closer to it than I am. I'll bet that lake is very much the same as the one I experienced in Canada for it's star gazing view.

KristineS
12-22-2009, 02:45 PM
I truly am blessed to have been able to visit their place. It is the most peaceful place I have ever been.