June 5, 2008: Stargazers
 

http://cellar.org/2008/flagstaffskyusnomq2.jpg
Picture by mailto: ghayduke at inreach dot com 2008 April 16

Explanation: This sky is protected. Yesterday marked the 50 year anniversary of the first lighting ordinance ever enacted, which restricted searchlight advertisements from sweeping the night skies above Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Flagstaff now enjoys the status of being the first International Dark Sky City, and maintains a lighting code that limits lights from polluting this majestic nighttime view. The current dark skies over Flagstaff not only enable local astronomers to decode the universe but allow local sky enthusiasts to see and enjoy a tapestry contemplated previously by every human generation. The above image, pointing just east of north, was taken two weeks ago at 3 am from Fort Valley, only 10 kilometers from central Flagstaff. Visible in the above spectacular panorama are the San Francisco Peaks caped by a lenticular cloud. Far in the distance, the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy arcs diagonally from the lower left to the upper right, highlighted by the constellations of Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Cygnus. On the far right, the North America Nebula is visible just under the very bright star Deneb.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080416.html

What a cool picture.

Did you know that about two thirds of US citizens can't see the Milky Way galaxy with their naked eyes because of light pollution where they live?

I grew up being to see it, but have never seen it here in the DC area. My kids have only seen it a couple of times in their lives.

Where I live, I don't even bother looking at the sky; you can't see it. It's supposed to be an awe-inspiring sight. When I go to the country, I lie on my back for hours, watching shooting stars and having long conversations about what's out there.

Those Flagstaffians act all righteous, but actually they're cowards trying to hide their city from the aliens. :haha:

From the bottom of the grand Canyon, in August, there are so many stars they start to blur together.

I am an amature star gazer. Spend a lot of time on deployment and there is no light pollution so there is lots to look at. I love to see the milky way, and with a pair of good binocs you can see Andromeda Galaxy (M31) http://stargazing.suite101.com/artic...tion_andromeda .
It is amazing to me that it is a whole other constiellation just like ours that may or may not contain another place like earth. And of course you all know what the Milky Way is don't you?

Yes, and you're making me hungry.

OK, this photo doesn't look right to me. Looking at the full res version it feels like someone took two pictures and stitched them together. The background is a starscape and the foreground is a long exposure of a mountain. The stitch point is the top edge of the mountain/cloud. The cloud looks really fake. The reason I can say its a 'shop is because the top edge has more definition than it should given the sharpness of everything else in the photo; ie compare any of the roof lines with the top edge of the mountain. Also the top edge just left of the cloud has added white which makes it look like it was cut out of a different picture. Also the center is weird blurry indicating rubber stamping and the house in the center seems to have have stopped a hill from continuing along the treeline. You can also see the same bush repeated 3 times in the bottom center treeline. All in all, I don't believe this photo.

I thought it looked fake too, but the only thing I saw was the edge between the mountain top and the sky where the cloud isn't. But NASA is pretty well known for making composite images. And this came from NASA's site.

My bet (and too bad NASA's page doesn't confirm this) is that it's more like a HDR photo. The credited photographers are well known in the field.

fake or not it's beautiful

I can still remember the shock I got when i first moved from New Jersey and flew to Arizona before heading to California. We drove through the desert at night and I saw more stars in one minute than I had ever seen in my entire life, put together.

My God, it's full of stars! ;)

@ Sperlock, you made me almost spit my soup!
I wonder... Dou you think that the ability to stargaze at any time versus being in a city where there's no point in looking at the sky makes a difference in peoples happiness (insert whatever feeling you want here)? During the summer, I spend a lot of time in my swing just looking up at the stars. I go to bed feeling very relaxed, not to mention awe-inspired.

This is a composite image. The husband & wife team who made it on April 16th (?) have produced similar images in the past. Their intent is not to deceive, but to produce art that reflects the beauty of the sky. They take several images using high def with various focal points and then layer the images to produce the desired "sharpness"

Welcome, Big Sarge. Do you happen to be part of that husband and wife team? ;)