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CapturingTheNight — My Place In The Universe
Published: 2012-06-08 09:38:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 6864; Favourites: 275; Downloads: 0
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Description
© Greg Gibbs. You may not use, replicate, manipulate, or modify this image without my permission. All Rights Reserved.Please write to:
Greg Gibbs
Post Office Box 7,058,692,301
Australia
Planet Earth
Solar System
Orion Spur
Perseus Arm
Milky Way Galaxy
Local Group
Virgo Super Cluster
The Universe
Featuring in this roughly 270 degree panorama (from right to left) is the glow of the coming dawn to the east with the triangular glow of the Zodiacal Light stretching out from in it along the line of the ecliptic. A meteor strike is to the left of that. The plane of the Milky Way stretches above where I live. The two brighter patches in the sky on the far left of frame are the Large Magellanic Cloud (lower) and Small Magellanic Cloud (upper), which are satellite galaxies of our own galaxy.
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Comments: 59
You're welcome! Looks like the most perfect place in the universe!
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You're welcome!!!!
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Thank you very much 
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Thank you so much
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I don't feel very discriminating in just "liking" everything, but your whole series of recent pictures is just superb!
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Thank you very much for the great feedback Bert
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Thank you very much once again Margaret
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I'm envious.
I was out last night and between all crap in the air and the light pollution I could hardly find a thing.
Awesome view
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Yes I am very lucky to have dark skies here.
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Wow! This is incredible! What do you use to edit your photo's?
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Thank you
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words can't describe this shot...
is it a single shot? or is it a stitched panorama? either way VERY good
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oh WOW............. sorry I know this isn't a very impressive comment...but.......
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Thank you very much
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Another cracking shot Greg. Could be the opening frame from a sci-fi movie.
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Thank you for the nice feedback
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Thank you
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You're welcome
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Thank you very much
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How beautiful!
Also, enjoying your description
What I don't get: the band of our galaxy is right in the zenith above my head. And has been there since I consciously observed it (= 5 months). I'd never be able to take such a picture of it involving the horizon in any way.
How can a tiny distance of say 4.000km between yours and my location can make such a difference in the relative location of such an enormous and enormously far away object?
I enjoy how I "don't get that". Yet another thing to some day understand.
I hope you, too, still, have these wonderful questions and the joy of wonder!
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Oh and I should say that this picture is deceptive in how close it is showing the Milky Way to the horizon, as it is a panorama covering over 270 degrees horizontally and over 180 vertically.
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"over 180 vertically"...
back to the think tank again.
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Ah. Sorry. Um...yeah that should have read over 100 degrees vertically.
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What was the exposure time on each frame of the panorama, if you don't mind me asking?
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Thanks mate - favourited. Got a 10-22mm on the way from B&H and plan to do some starscapes at the beach when it arrives.
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Thank you very much
Now. The earth rotates once every 24 hours right. The stars (including the billions that make up the plane of the milky way) are fixed points in the sky. The beauty of the southern cross (SC) is it points to the point of rotation of the earth in relation to the sky for us in the southern hemisphere (google finding south celestial pole with the southern cross). As the earth rotates over the period of 24hours, so does the SC around the south celestial pole once every 24 hours. So at this time of year after 6 hours or a quarter of one revolution (midnight if you are looking at the sky at 8pm) the SC no longer is upright, it is laying on its right side as you look at it. So now draw a line through the arms and the plane of the Milky Way is running from pretty much South to North and the central bulge of the milky way is virtually straight over head. In another six hours (before dawn at this time of year) the southern cross is upside down lower down towards the southern horizon.
Having said all that what I rally should have done is just said go to [link] Zoom right out. Go to location and enter -35 in latitude and 147 in longitude (I know this isn't your actual location but it will be close enough for this demo) click GO and then click on time. Todays date should be already there. Enter 8pm as a 24 hour time ie. 20:00 and click GO. Now look for the words Crux (the southern cross) and Sagittarius (the central bulge of the milky way) Crux will be below centre and sagittarius will be to the left near the east horizon. Now increase the time to say midnight. What happens to crux and Sagittarius?. Increase the time again and see what happens to them.
Hope this helps a bit. You should always be able to photograph the milky way near the horizon. You just need to wait for it to come to the horizon. If it is straight overhead, wait 5 hours or so and it will be close to the west horizon.
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cheers, greg!
after posting my comment, I drew diagrams for over an hour, trying to depict what I remembered I had observed. couldn't make it match.
skymap cleared it all up!
pure coincidence that I had never seen the prominence of the MW near horizon. Today at 4am would have been an example. Set the alarm, got up: clouds. ah well. what you're gonna do.
annette
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