This is a very cool picture, but I must confess a little suspicion: could that clear an image of the Milky Way be taken without an exposure time that would smear either the stars (if the camera were fixed) or the mountains (if the camera tracked the sky)? Judging by the amount of noise in the image, perhaps the answer is yes, but it’s still a pretty surprising image.
If you follow the link on the page for Wally Pacholka, you can read about his technique. A 30 second exposure with a 35mm camera, with a flashlight used to illuminate the mountains (which is why they appear slightly flattened, I assume). It’s all in the choice of location, and mountains are always a good choice.
one of the things I like about going to the beach in thailand to places where they turn the generators off at night is you can really see the milky way like a river of light. if there were less light pollution people would be tripping out about stars all the time.
anon, thanks for the link…. It makes sense as a 30 second exposure — compare this image at 5 minutes, tracked to follow the sky, where you can clearly see the displacement of the mountains in the photo. It’s a nice technique, that makes for beautiful pictures.
{ 15 comments }
Brendan 08.02.06 at 11:58 am
I’m sorry but this one here
http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/media/galleries/science/astronomy/deep%20space.jpg
is for me the ultimate, ‘fuck with your head’ space image.
Barry 08.02.06 at 12:24 pm
Wow. The Utah one is more visually impressive, even though the Hubble is more intellectually impressive.
"Q" the Enchanter 08.02.06 at 12:35 pm
You are here.
Matt 08.02.06 at 1:45 pm
Cool.
The Modesto Kid 08.02.06 at 1:51 pm
Brendan — cool — that image has been my desktop wallpaper going on a year now.
jakeb 08.02.06 at 2:00 pm
I go to http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ every day, for reasons like the above.
Alex R 08.02.06 at 3:02 pm
This is a very cool picture, but I must confess a little suspicion: could that clear an image of the Milky Way be taken without an exposure time that would smear either the stars (if the camera were fixed) or the mountains (if the camera tracked the sky)? Judging by the amount of noise in the image, perhaps the answer is yes, but it’s still a pretty surprising image.
yeti 08.02.06 at 3:49 pm
Now, could someone please post a picture of the moral law within?
a different chris 08.02.06 at 4:59 pm
With that kind of titile I thought for sure this post was linking to a picture of Aishwarya-rai, but, uh, yeah. This is nice, too.
Benjamin Nelson 08.02.06 at 8:30 pm
Stupid stars, think they’re so big.
Anon 08.02.06 at 8:40 pm
alex r,
If you follow the link on the page for Wally Pacholka, you can read about his technique. A 30 second exposure with a 35mm camera, with a flashlight used to illuminate the mountains (which is why they appear slightly flattened, I assume). It’s all in the choice of location, and mountains are always a good choice.
Anon
David Sucher 08.02.06 at 11:11 pm
It’s amazing indeed these days what wonders painters can create on a ceiling.
Belle Waring 08.03.06 at 9:22 am
ow, brendan. too…many…galaxies.
one of the things I like about going to the beach in thailand to places where they turn the generators off at night is you can really see the milky way like a river of light. if there were less light pollution people would be tripping out about stars all the time.
Alex R 08.03.06 at 11:23 am
anon, thanks for the link…. It makes sense as a 30 second exposure — compare this image at 5 minutes, tracked to follow the sky, where you can clearly see the displacement of the mountains in the photo. It’s a nice technique, that makes for beautiful pictures.
Eszter 08.03.06 at 9:50 pm
Alex – Can you repost that link, perhaps just put the URL itself in the comment? Thanks.
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