The amazing night sky above Mt. Everest (picture!)

reply to post by The Wave
yes, we are not allowed to see the stars...

Things like this kind of make me sad of what us humans do to the Earth, when we could see things like this instead of just smog.

Very beautiful picture. Although there are about 5 or 6 of us who have noticed and commented on the small white orb that's about an inch and a half to the right of the temple, I wonder what that is? Hmm.. interesting indeed! Thanks!

I miss the starry sky so much! When I was a child I used to go camping every summer with my parents on an island on the Danube. Every night, after the mosquitos were gone, we'd build a camp fire and lay in our chairs staring up at the most amazing view mankind has ever contemplated.

I'm reading Carl Sagan's Contact right now, and he says that ever since man discovered just how vast the universe is, we've been trying hard to hide the night sky with light pollution, so as not to remind ourselves just how insignificant we are...

Originally posted by Teki187
No one has noticed the clear white "orb" in the middle left of the picture, in the trees.

I did,from my earlier post:

"Check out the realy bright ground based light,to the bottom left section of the photo-Is that Everest base camp do you rek? "

reply to post by WondersBeyondOurGalaxy


The source of the light is clearly stated on that NASA site:

The light in the valley is from the Tengboche Monastery, also along the trail at about 4000 meters.
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...

Wow. Amazing photos! that one of Easter Island gave me chills with the head in the front of the image - so lovely! These are the post's on ATS i love, getting a glimpse into thing's i might never have seen elsewhere - thanks for sharing! s&f!

Good grief it is right below theimage what the bright "orb" is.

at the far left, and a stupa (a Buddhist religious monument) in the foreground, along the main trail to the Everest Base Camp. The light in the valley is from the Tengboche Monastery, also along the trail at about 4000 meters.

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth

In the middle of the night, I had to get up and go use the bathroom so I get up and go outside.

There was a bathroom on the beach????



Just being silly GST - I know exactly what you're saying. The same experience on my Dad's farm, high in the mountains - a view of the heavens that was simply mesmerising.

[edit on 10-12-2009 by mckyle]

For a dark sky near you, you can find them at cleardarksky.com... . There is a way to overlap the sky light pollution map onto Google Earth so you can find the nearest dark sky.

They may be closer than you think, if you live out in the western US.

When you reach the dark sky area, you will actually be able to see the Andromeda Galaxy with your naked eyes. You will also see globular clusters, like the Hercules Cluster, without binoculars. Try to get there on a moonless night.

I read somewhere that when Los Angeles had a major blackout, the 911 calls were coming in right and left from people stating that there was something wrong with the sky.

I think the OP photo is doctored, as the Pleiades is a Fall to early Winter presence, which would probably mean there would be a lot more snow in the shot. Also, the mountains are a bit light brown, considering the exposure. Sorta looks like a layered image to me. Nice effect, tho. People get creative with photos. Remember the so-called photo of Europe in darkness and the US in light? Another doctored photo, combining a dark shot and a light shot.


[edit on 12/10/2009 by Jim Scott]

Who put the *HUGE WHITE UFO ORB* on the middle-left lower bottom? Or is that a "star" closer to us than Mt Everest?

But what is it? Star? Orb? Camera flash? Is this a trick picture?

EDIT: Ah, it's no natural camera photo...

[edit on 10-12-2009 by ravenflt]

reply to post by gouryella


Thank you for clarifying! I live out in the "middle of nowhere" so stargazing is a must! I've seen a couple ufos and am hoping to see more this winter! Happy Holidays!

[edit on 10-12-2009 by WondersBeyondOurGalaxy]

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Thank you for posting! What I wouldn't give to get away from city light for a while. Imagine how much easier those UFO's would be to spot too

Absolutely beautiful, thanx to the OP for posting that image. I've NEVER seem Piladies that clear.....even when I was camping in the Aussie Outback! Another screen saver saved!!

reply to posts by [argentus], [djusdjus], [sotp] and a few others.

That's a chorten actually, not a temple. I imagine the light to the right of it is some terrestrial source, a building or even a streetlamp (seriously; some mountain trails in Nepal do have them).

reply to post by Teki187

Naughty, naughty. Didn't read the thread, did you?

Originally posted by rizla
Looks like they kept the shutter open on the camera. The Pleiades ain't that bright.

Precisely. Which explains the flare from the terrestrial source as well.

Reading on: ah, I see it has already been explained. The light is from a distant monastery (slightly red-shifted due to recession). Judging by how many people missed it the first time, it seems to be worth repeating.

reply to post by Nventual


Thank you for sharing, living in the "burbs" we see stars but not like when I lived on a rural farm in Missouri.

I miss the night sky.

WOW!!

I never knew there were so many bright objects in the sky, visible to the naked eye.

I live in one of the most industialised areas of England and I have NEVER seen anything like this. I'm very lucky if there's even a couple of stars that are visible, plus the fact that it IS England, so it's nearly always cloudy.

Even camping at Lake Tahoe earlier this year, or half way up Mount Snowdon when I was a kid, I didn't see anything this impressive.

There are some good pictures on that page, and I found a funny description:
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...

Explanation: A flying saucer from outer space crash-landed in the Utah desert in 2004 after being tracked by radar and chased by helicopters. No space aliens were involved, however. The saucer, pictured above, was the Genesis sample return capsule, part of a human-made robot Genesis spaceship launched in 2001 by NASA itself to study the Sun. The unexpectedly hard landing at over 300 kilometers per hour occurred because the parachutes did not open as planned. ...

one of the most amazing pictures i have seen. I sure do wish i lived in an area far from light pollution to get a view like this. thanks for the post

reply to post by Nventual


Beautiful photo...thanks! I live in Northern Ontario where the skies are free from any polution one sees in southern cities. On cloudless nights with no moon, the sky looks very much like that in the photo. On winter nights with the ground covered in snow, the stars give off enough light to see by, whenever I go for a walk. There's nothing like viewing such a sky, to make a person realize just how insignificant we are, and how small the planet upon which we live. Viewing such a sky through binocculars is even more breathtaking, and I find it impossible to believe ours is the only life supporting planet in our galaxy, let alone the universe, especially with some of the things my wife and I have observed. I also find it difficult to imagine it all coming from a tiny piece of matter, and I find myself asking where then did that piece of matter come from?