[AZ-Observing] Re: Southern Milkyway with Sigma fisheye
- From: L Knauth <Knauth@xxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Rik Hill" <rhill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Az-Observing List" <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Mike Bakich Astronomy" <mbakich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Adam Block" <ngc1535@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>, <gallery@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Don Goldman" <don@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Jerry Bonnell APOD" <bonnell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Joe Orman" <joe.orman@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Albert Levy" <alevy1@xxxxxxxxxx>, "John O'Farrell" <jofarrell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Thelma/John Ofarrell" <thelmaann@xxxxxxx>, "Rick Rotramel AZ77" <rick.rotramel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Rick Scott" <rmscott@xxxxxxx>, "Robert Nemiroff APOD" <nemiroff@xxxxxxx>, "Bernie Sanden" <bsanden@xxxxxxx>, "Arlene Schur" <2arlene@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Paul Tierney" <palaeopaul@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Vince" <ne7y@xxxxxxx>, "Sean Walker" <swalker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Dan Ward" <danlward@xxxxxxx>, "Peter Wehinger" <pwehinger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Susan Wyckoff" <wyckoff@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:29:25 -0700
Chris, congrats on a great shot!!! It has some significant advantages over the
famous Mellinger mosaic (http://home.arcor-online.de/axel.mellinger/) marketed
by S&T and on the wall of my home office. Specifically, the gradations in
darkness of the dark clouds in your photo are amazing. Look how much darker
our big northern hemisphere "summer rift" is relative to the other dark clouds.
This isn't apparent at all on the Mellinger mosaic, which is obviously
over-processed to the point of detriment. And, some of the features noted by
Brian in an earlier post are also largely absent on the Mellinger. The color
contrasts in the stellar populations are "better than text-book". Thanks for
sharing this stunning shot.
Your photo brings back intense memories of a wondrous night I spent in NW
Australia while doing geology fieldwork in 2001. Closest light was at least
200 K away, and that might have been on a single pole. Unexpunged field notes
from my pocket PC:
"Wednesday, July 18, 2001. Drove 19 GPS Km to SW to the Trendall Locality on
the east bank of the dry Shaw River. Track is very poor and hard to follow.
Would be tough to stay on track without MVK leading the way. Took about 90
minutes of ball-busting 4-wheeling to get to this spot. Very beautiful and we
camped there. Night sky was beyond description. No horizon lights anywhere.
Zodiacal light a blinding shaft of light going almost straight up to blood-red
Mars sitting in the Milky Way on the Zenith. Milky way is billowing clouds of
stars with blobs and tendrills of dark obscuring matter. Center of the galaxy
on the zenith. Makes you choke up. Lyons, MVK, Simon, and myself walked out
into the center of the Shaw and looked at star clusters through my Leitz 8x40
Trinovids and chatted about the nature of the universe. Incredible. Left my
binocs with Lyons who threw down a sleeping bag way out on the river plain and
stayed up much of the night gawking at the universe. This was certainly the
darkest sky I have ever seen and you could almost read a newspaper once you got
dark adapted. Milky Way right overhead. Atmosphere wasn't completely dry, so
it gets even better. Time to immigrate. Realizing that I can't stand gawking
dumbfounded at all this forever, I get depressed that I may never see a sight
like this again. Go to bed and regret I didn't fill in a deep camel track in
the sand before throwing down my bag. Lyons tells me next morning that there
was a stupendous array of Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and the crescent moon in
the morning twilight."
Paul
Paul Knauth
Box 871404
School of Earth and Space Exploration
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-1404
480-965-2867 (voice)
480-965-8102 (Fax)
http://www.public.asu.edu/~iaclpk/
-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Chris Schur
Sent: Mon 9/15/2008 8:59 AM
To: Rik Hill; Az-Observing List; Mike Bakich Astronomy; Adam Block; Steve Coe;
gallery@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Don Goldman; Jerry Bonnell APOD; Joe Orman; Albert
Levy; John O'Farrell; Thelma/John Ofarrell; Rick Rotramel AZ77; Rick Scott;
Robert Nemiroff APOD; Bernie Sanden; Arlene Schur; Paul Tierney; Vince; Sean
Walker; Dan Ward; Peter Wehinger; Susan Wyckoff
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Southern Milkyway with Sigma fisheye
HI all,
Another new image from our recent trip to central Australia, this one with the
sigma 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens pointed at the zenith:
http://tinyurl.com/6pslrm
The sky was fairly dark in the Outback, reading 21.6 on the SQM meter in a
bland part of the sky.
Chris
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