Galactic Center of milky way [Video]

Originally posted by doogle
That is beautiful. I've seen the Milkyway a few times here in the UK, but it's rare to see it with the clouds and street lights, though not impossible.
I'd love to be able to afford one of those cameras and have a go at getting some shots like this myself. Guess I'll have to start saving up

They can be captured using cheap digital point and shoot cameras!!

You only need to use the manual mode. Set shutter speed to 30 seconds, zoom to wide, aperture to maximum, and focus to 'infinity'. Adding some post-processing like using Adobe Photoshop, you will eventually make out the Milky Way from the image.

Same setting for professional DSLR cameras + one more thing, set ISO to 1600, but best if you use wide angle or wide field of view lenses.

[edit on 19-5-2009 by ahnggk]

Hmmm... I'll try that the next time the sky is clear Thanks.

Here's my first attempt at a milkyway image, taken from fairly light polluted suburban skies by literally strapping my dSLR to the fork mount of my telescope so that it would track with the sky:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d6873b5cef54.jpg[/atsimg]
(slightly less compressed version here: www.flickr.com... )
I used some fancy processing techniques to subtract most of the light pollution and bring out the milky way details. It's a free program called IRIS:
www.astrosurf.com...

[edit on 19-5-2009 by ngchunter]

Wow amazing! I never knew you could see something like that without a big telescope. I live in FL with many lights so I dont see much in the sky at night I wish I could see stuff like this. Nice find! S&F!

Originally posted by myself

But my take on it is there calendar is very accurate, and there long cycle which ends 21 / 12 / 2012 is based on a different observation of the stars. And not the one critics are seem to be criticizing.

Maybe there calculations are made from these sort of rare views.

Reply to Doogle

My take on the 2012 thing is that people who say it's the 'end of the world' or whatever are simply failing to realise that it's just the end of the Mayan long cycle. And that a cycle, once it gets to it's end, usually starts again from the beginning, in exactly the same way as when we get to the end of the year, we start a new year on January 1st. To me, 2012 is the end of this current cycle and the beginning of the next long cycle. Nothing to worry about at all.

LoL I don’t believe the world is going to end on this date, but i do believe we may experience some difficult weather. And I do believe that the Mayans end their long cycle on this date because of some mathematical calculation in correspondence to the stars. The Milky Way even.

Remember back then there was a hell of a lot less pollution so sites like this would not of been so rare. And one thing we do know about their calendar is that its accurate and its based on mathematical equations from the study of the stars.

according to astronomer's on 21/12/2012 we are aligned with the galactic center.. think we could see it clearly that day? i hope so anyway

That’s what Im hoping for, its very possible.


[edit on 19-5-2009 by theflashor]

im buying a good camera with a telescope attachment next paycheck for realz.

thats too cool.

Originally posted by poet1b
Also, what are the the red shapes curved around the bottom of the video?

That is the party with the other sky watchers and equipment seen in time-lapse.

Sky gazers use red lights to see in the dark to help keep their eyes adjusted to low light conditions so they can better observe dim celestial objects.

Originally posted by IAttackPeople

Originally posted by poet1b
Also, what are the the red shapes curved around the bottom of the video?

That is the party with the other sky watchers and equipment seen in time-lapse.

Sky gazers use red lights to see in the dark to help keep their eyes adjusted to low light conditions so they can better observe dim celestial objects.

I had wonderd what these was, thanks for clearing this up

it would be cool if somone could find a location where they could do this kind of imagery nightly for a time period of lets say 3 years. So we could see where we seem to be heading within our own galaxy. It would be interesting to see how the view changes on a yearly perspective.

Example.

Take same sort of image at same date, but different year and compare the difference in the images.

Truly we are nothing in the grand scale of things.Great post mate!!

reply to post by theflashor


Unfortunately, you wouldn't see any noticeable difference in a wide field shot like that. The proper motion of stars is measured in arcseconds, while these kinds of images have resolutions measured in arcminutes. Precession is about an order of magnitude greater than the effect of our motion through the galaxy. The closest stars showing very highest proper motions are only moving at about 5 arcseconds a year (most stars show proper motions of only about .1-.2 arcseconds/year). In other words, with a very good amateur telescope at the full theoretical limit of its resolution you'd only see a motion of about 10 pixels in half a dozen stars throughout the entire sky, all the others would move less than one pixel.

[edit on 19-5-2009 by ngchunter]

well that was really an amazing video, that was really beautiful....

thanks for posting!!!

reply to post by ngchunter


so what you are saying is we would need to study their movments for hundreds of years, as the mayans did.

Originally posted by theflashor
reply to post by ngchunter

 

so what you are saying is we would need to study their movments for hundreds of years, as the mayans did.

Well let's see. A human eye at a 7mm pupil size (as would be expected for a dark adapted eye) has a lower resolution than a non-dialated pupil due to spherical aberration that is reduced by "stopping down the aperture." This limits night time resolution of the eye to about 3 arcminutes. You're also relying on your rods in your eye at night and not so much of your cones. Cones give you your "high resolution" in your fovea. Your average person only has a night resolution of about 6 arcminutes as a result, but the "world's best" theoretical maximum for a highly unusual person with either superhuman cones or a superhuman density of rods is 3 arcminutes. At .15 arcseconds/year of proper motion for your average star, someone with superhuman 3 arcminute vision would have to live for 1,200 years before seeing the first "notch" of motion in the position of the stars due to our motion through the galaxy (as well as the motion of the other stars) and even then you couldn't really figure out our true motion through the galaxy based on just that one unit of shift, you need many data points with changes high enough to compensate for measurement uncertainty or error.

[edit on 19-5-2009 by ngchunter]

i should remind you that they built pyramids to use as a reference point.

Also i find it very strange how the old cultures used to use the stars to give people personality profiles and the alike. Only with modern day science we know the gravitational forces from the moon and sun affects our moods and actions as humans. I Truly beleive the mayan culture knew much more than what we give them credit for.



[edit on 19-5-2009 by theflashor]

WOW! I need to sell this house and buy a place in the countryside.

reply to post by Waitingsolong


Your profile avatar is cool aswll mate..

[edit on 19-5-2009 by theflashor]

reply to post by AlwaysQuestion


And they try and tell us that we're the only inteligent race in the universe.. Absoulutly beautifull.. Thank you..

reply to post by Ignorance Denied


nope they do not try and tell us that at all. Thats what humans percieve on a whole. LoL yea right..

Originally posted by theflashor
i should remind you that they built pyramids to use as a reference point.

That may be true, but a reference point is only as good as the measurement device that placed it there. Over the course of their civilization the mayans might have figured out precession (impressive in its own right), but our motion through the galaxy is impossible to determine even on that timespan with just the human eye. I don't personally believe in astrology, in fact tidal forces from the sun or moon are many orders of magnitude too small to have any effect on us as humans, but that's for another thread.

[edit on 19-5-2009 by ngchunter]