most beautiful sight of our Milky Way in the sky

starrygaze

starrygaze

Active Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2005
Messages
2,328
Reaction score
3
Ever you see the most beautiful sight of milky Way in the sky on high mounation over 8,000 ft? It was so awesome when you can feel like you were there!
 
Ooh! Another astronomy buff!

I'm a huge fan of the night sky, but like exploring beyond the Local Group galaxy cluster.

Try these awesome places:

Horsehead Nebula
horsehead.jpg


T-pyxidis (a nova)
t-pyxidis-novarec1997.jpg
 
No, have never seen it from an elev. of 8,000 feet before. Sounds like the remote desert! In the desert, stars give the illusion of being so close that you think you can touch them. My dad works in the desert in Algeria and when I look at the photos, the desert sky is a pasty blue during the daytime making it look almost fake.

Endymion, it seems you are a huge fan of what lies outside the Local Group of galaxy clusters. Have you ever heard of dark matter? It is said that as much as 90% of the universe may be dark matter. The naked human eye cannot see it because dark matter lies outside the eye's visible light spectrum but can include planets, stars, galaxies, black holes and more.
 
Theseus said:
No, have never seen it from an elev. of 8,000 feet before. Sounds like the remote desert! In the desert, stars give the illusion of being so close that you think you can touch them. My dad works in the desert in Algeria and when I look at the photos, the desert sky is a pasty blue during the daytime making it look almost fake.

Endymion, it seems you are a huge fan of what lies outside the Local Group of galaxy clusters. Have you ever heard of dark matter? It is said that as much as 90% of the universe may be dark matter. The naked human eye cannot see it because dark matter lies outside the eye's visible light spectrum but can include planets, stars, galaxies, black holes and more.
Click to expand...

Theseus, it's excellent that you brought up dark matter! Dark matter is a fascinating subject, especially since only about 4% of the matter in the universe is baryonic ("normal"). 22% is dark matter, and the remaining 74% is an even stranger substance called dark energy.

The kind of dark matter you mention (which is excellent, I'm impressed!) is called baryonic dark matter and comprises of objects like brown dwarfs and other large cosmological things that we can't easily observe.

Non-baryonic dark matter is what's especially interesting. This kind of matter doesn't emit any sort of electromagnetic radiation, even outside of the part of the spectrum that we do see.

The presence of is somewhat controversial, but is generally accepted. There have been other theories to try and explain the effects we see in galaxy structures without the presence of dark matter. Two notable classes of theories are Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and theories that attempt to reconcile gravitation and quantum mechanics. It's all fascinating!
 
Umm... how can we see the Milky Way? Aren't we in the Milky Way?
 
yes we are in the milky way, and we are tiny.. the MW is huge. so you can see the plane of milky way though if you are in completely dark desert like arizona no lights around for 30 miles or so then you could see the lane of stars like shown in the picture I posted.

click the link above the picture which describe the picture.. (not the one underneath)
 
VamPyroX said:
Umm... how can we see the Milky Way? Aren't we in the Milky Way?
Click to expand...

To add what Boult said, we aren't in the center of it but in the outlying part. So, you can see it at night easily or in a good photo (as Boult provided). The part we really can't see well is in the center because of the densities of stars in the center (unbelievably dense) and the dust clouds that block our view.
 
Saw the stars and milky way last Saturday as we drove through the desert between Palm Springs and POway. No city lights to glare out the starry skies. it was wonderful to see the stars again. I have to say my favorite spot to stargaze is somewhere between Mammoth Mountains and Bishop at 4am on Janurary 2nd... saw a lot of shooting stars! and it was gorgeous to see the snow-white mountains reaching into the dark sky...
 
gnarlydorkette said:
Saw the stars and milky way last Saturday as we drove through the desert between Palm Springs and POway. No city lights to glare out the starry skies. it was wonderful to see the stars again. I have to say my favorite spot to stargaze is somewhere between Mammoth Mountains and Bishop at 4am on Janurary 2nd... saw a lot of shooting stars! and it was gorgeous to see the snow-white mountains reaching into the dark sky...
Click to expand...

dont you mind where? Palm Spring and POway? I will look up in google
 
Endymion said:
Theseus, it's excellent that you brought up dark matter! Dark matter is a fascinating subject, especially since only about 4% of the matter in the universe is baryonic ("normal"). 22% is dark matter, and the remaining 74% is an even stranger substance called dark energy.

The kind of dark matter you mention (which is excellent, I'm impressed!) is called baryonic dark matter and comprises of objects like brown dwarfs and other large cosmological things that we can't easily observe.

Non-baryonic dark matter is what's especially interesting. This kind of matter doesn't emit any sort of electromagnetic radiation, even outside of the part of the spectrum that we do see.

The presence of is somewhat controversial, but is generally accepted. There have been other theories to try and explain the effects we see in galaxy structures without the presence of dark matter. Two notable classes of theories are Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and theories that attempt to reconcile gravitation and quantum mechanics. It's all fascinating!
Click to expand...

Endymion, I'm impressed that you narrowed it down to baryonic, non-baryonic, and dark energy. Good to know because very few people would've discovered that. Up to 90% of the universe may be dark matter and dark energy (correction to what I said earlier). I'm glad you caught this because it's been awhile since I've read on the subject of dark matter and dark energy.

It all goes into complex astrophysics theories, and it is helpful to have a little understanding of the string theory. In string theory, gravity is associated with a closed thread and has no end. It can also spread out anywhere and leak out a little into extra dimensions. This helps explain, for example, why gravity is so weak and a little magnet can lift a paper clip against the pull of the entire Earth.

The extra dimensions could be concealing the non-baryonic dark matter and that could also account for why it does not emit any sort of electromagnetic radiation. This is speaking in terms of dark matter being present under the influence of hidden dimensions. It is all fascinating, no doubt! Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about any of this.

starrygaze said:
dont you mind where? Palm Spring and POway? I will look up in google
Click to expand...
This should give you a general idea of where they are in California. Yahoo Map - Southern CA - Palm Springs and Poway
 
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=...addr=Palm+Desert,+California&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1

(The directions Map Google gave out is TOO LONG because they focus on keeping using the freeway when the backroad is MUCH better... so we took highway 10 that is the one that goes diagonally from Poway to Palm Desert (4 minutes away from the world famous Palm Springs) where we stargazed at 2am last Sunday. :)

I am hoping you can see the map with the mountains and whatnot... if not, click on "satellite" or "hybrid" and you should be able to see how it looks.

:) You know San Diego? Poway is like 30 minutes northeast of San Diego.
 
I love you all guys explain about sting theory, dark matter/energy, and anothers I know about too. It could be replusion and pull gravitation. See we are living is so small matter, and dark matter is so huge. Also they are starting to undestand the black holes. wow you explain many details.
 
Endymion said:
Ooh! Another astronomy buff!

I'm a huge fan of the night sky, but like exploring beyond the Local Group galaxy cluster.
Click to expand...
Yeah, me too. When I was in the service out on the ocean I never realized how many stars there are out there because you just cant see them all because of the city lights. I wonder if you see more stars on the ocean than you do on the mountain tops. Perhaps it depends on how close the nearest city is. I have always been facinated by astronomy.
 
i love astronmoy! i have been looking at sky since I was 8 yrs old. One of my fav past time to do that.. :) but i dont do that much since I have my son here with me so its hard to do that.. grrr.. only on weekends i can.. :)

Indeed they r beautiful and make me wonder if life is out there.. more than eyes can see? hmm? :)
 
Yes I believe there is a life out there but possibly more than life out there too. there are billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy if there is no life then they are waste but beautiful. I am saving money to buy telescope.

I watched Contact, my favorite movie. :)

I believe there are in work to build Terrestrial Planet Finder. They will find earth-like planets. Maybe next decade will tell? I will be 45 years old. There will be big technology to see the life out there.

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/detectionMilestone.cfm
 
starrygaze said:
Yes I believe there is a life out there but possibly more than life out there too. there are billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy if there is no life then they are waste but beautiful. I am saving money to buy telescope.

I watched Contact, my favorite movie. :)

I believe there are in work to build Terrestrial Planet Finder. They will find earth-like planets. Maybe next decade will tell? I will be 45 years old. There will be big technology to see the life out there.

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/detectionMilestone.cfm
Click to expand...


yeah but the only plm is that we can only see milky way best in summer time.. did u know that?? ha
 
I will find new digital camera to photograph the Milky Way on 8,000 ft just 30 miles west of my hometown. Last time I saw was so awesome! More clearer. There are many cabins. Someday I will buy new home there. :)
 
Back
Top