OT: A pic of a few stars

[Evan]

I finally received some low res copies of the pics I took at mount Kobau using the Fuji Superia film. Not as good as could be due to the smoke problems then but OK. This is looking at a lesser area of the Milky Way, no telescope, just a standard 50mm lens and about 5 minutes exposure. Someone want to try counting them? http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

http://vts.bc.ca/img/mw1_04.jpg

[This message has been edited by Evan (edited 09-02-2004).]

[charlie coghill]

I counted them and there are one gazillion 100 thousand. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif
Very nice picture Even.
Charlie

[Evan]

Thanks Charlie,

Here is the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, M31, the furthest thing that can be seen with the naked eye.

http://vts.bc.ca/img/m31a.jpg

[motorworks]

Evan
In high school I had a Chemisrty Teacher who told us that if ever in life, we got a "swelled head", to go out on a clear nite and lie back on the grass and look up at the stars and think just how insignificant we really are!

Title: Galaxy Song
From: Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Transcribed By: unknown


<spoken>
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
<sung>
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough,

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And reolving at nine thousand miles an hour.
It's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
The sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at fourteen thousand miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred million stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

<waltz>

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, that's the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

[ben78]

Nice pics Evan,

Why does M31 look so grainy? Is that due to the scanning process or something else?

[BillH]

You know Evan, I guess its the pictures you take, or the Astronomy stuff you talk about a lot, that made me decide to take Astronomy this semester. That is really cool seeing Andromeda. My teacher was just talking about it in last class.

[zl1byz]

Good thought provoking pictures Evan.

I wonder how many beings out there are looking back at our speck in the sky?

[Evan]

Ben78,

The grain is because my daughter had the film developed in her town about eight hours drive from here. They still have a custom lab. She took the negs to Wallmart and had them scanned to CD and e-mailed them to me. I'm not impressed by the Wallmart service. The scans are only around 1.3 megapixel. We won't bother again.

[Rustybolt]

Thanks Evan.

[Spin Doctor]

Evan, it is truely sad our human eyes can not gather light as well as our cameras (after all that's all large telescopes are). Then prehaps we would truely appreciate the wonders of the cosmos.

And this is with a 50mm Lens WOW!!!!!

[dvk]

Ps:147:4-5: He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

[Evan]

Hmmm... Infinite indeed.

Spin,

I most enjoy taking pictures of what we could see with our own eyes if only they were more sensitive. Consider for a moment what the sky look like to an owl. Now there's a thought...

[This message has been edited by Evan (edited 09-03-2004).]

[motorworks]

"Consider for a moment what the sky look like to an owl."

Perhaps that is why they are refered to as Wise!

[Evan]

"I wonder how many beings out there are looking back at our speck in the sky?"

I wonder if our failure so far to find evidence of "others" might be due to something not usually considered. The majority of star systems are at least double star and there are many that are triple or more. In our own system Jupiter is considered a "failed" star and even emits four times more thermal radiation than it receives from the sun. It is entirely possible to have stable planetary orbits in a multi star system, just as we have stable orbits here even with the influence of Jupiter. What if the majority of inhabited planets in the galaxy are in multi star systems and there is never or rarely nightfall? No stars to see, no astronomy. No wondering who is out there.

A good book with this idea is "Nightfall" by Issac Asimov.

[bikenut]

Thanks for the pic's, I've wondered whom out there might have taken a look at us, and shined us on because we seem to be a bunch of maniacs. Or hell, all they have to do is monitor our TV transmissions to see there is no intelligent life down here.

[Evan]

Yep, I Love Lucy is about 50 light years out by now. Were I them I would hide too. And, what about wrestling?