Posted on 04/19/2016 5:16:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: What’s that rising over the hill? A galaxy. Never having seen a galaxy themselves, three friends of an industrious astrophotographer experienced an exhilarating night sky firsthand that featured not only the band of our Milky Way galaxy but also Milky Way's neighbor -- the Andromeda galaxy. Capturing the scene required careful pre-shot planning including finding a good site, waiting for good weather, balancing relative angular sizes with a zoom lens, managing ground lighting, and minimizing atmospheric light absorption. The calculated shot therefore placed the friends on a hill about 250 meters away and about 50 meters up. The featured single-exposure image was taken last July 26 at about 11:30 pm in Guatape, Colombia, about two hours from Medellin. The surrounding stars visible are all nearby in our own galaxy, while the small galaxy just above M31 is Andromeda's satellite M110. Press Alert: Communicating Ast
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit and Copyright: Hugo Armando Rua Gutierrez]
No Big One.
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Very cool!
I didn’t realize Peter, Paul, and Mary had a gig there.
That must not have been just a jet plane after all.
They had never seen a galaxy before? They had never been where the night sky was dark enough to see the Milky Way?
Looks fake. Andromeda is just another speck in the night without a powerful telescope so how can it appear this large in proportion to the people standing in the foreground?
...and they still didn’t see a galaxy because they’re facing the wrong direction!
Look behind you!
Actually, Andromeda really is that big in the night sky. It’s wider than the moon in apparent size. It’s just that it’s very dim, so most of it is very hard to see. In good (i.e. very dark) conditions, it can be just barely made out as shown in the pic, though it’s not quite that dramatic.
And hey, give it a couple million years. It’s only going to get easier and easier to see.
Dammit. Sorry, thought the image was smaller.
Ok I stand corrected. Maybe someday I can visit there and look back at the Milky Way... Or whatever Andromedians call this place. ;)
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are also galaxies (visible in the southern hemisphere...or near the equator in the northern hemisphere). Named for Magellan, who must have been a bad guy, because (1) he was white and (2) he was killed by a non-white person.
I can only wish it were that bright an clear. best i have been able to see with telescope is an orange smudge.
People who live in or near large cities would only be able to see such sights during a total blackout. Too much artificial light obscures the stars otherwise.
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