Have yourself some shivers.
February 27, 2011 10:12 PM Subscribe
"Not a sun rise, but a galaxy rise. A morning filled with 400 billion suns. The rising of the Milky Way." Beautiful time-lapse of the Milky Way over Lake Tahoe.
That is absolutely beautiful. I'd really like to see the same thing with the sky staying fixed and the earth rotating though, just for a sense of perspective. You'd only get a fraction of the revolution, but I think the effect would be worth it if you could come up with a reasonable way to do it!
posted by thadjudkins at 10:26 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by thadjudkins at 10:26 PM on February 27, 2011
That is lovely, KAC, my space-geek kids & I thank you for posting.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 10:30 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by malibustacey9999 at 10:30 PM on February 27, 2011
Stunning, I sat through it four times, over and over. Thanks!
posted by thatbrunette at 10:31 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by thatbrunette at 10:31 PM on February 27, 2011
The most amazing Milky Way filming I've seen may still be from the Texas Star Party in 2009. I went to a Scout camp as a kid near where this was held, and each night was absolutely breathtaking.
posted by BevosAngryGhost at 10:48 PM on February 27, 2011 [13 favorites]
posted by BevosAngryGhost at 10:48 PM on February 27, 2011 [13 favorites]
Or, what jjray said.
posted by BevosAngryGhost at 10:48 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by BevosAngryGhost at 10:48 PM on February 27, 2011
Awesome.
posted by you're a kitty! at 10:54 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by you're a kitty! at 10:54 PM on February 27, 2011
Oops, I probably should have linked directly to the photographer's Vimeo page.
That Texas Star Party video is awesome too!
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 11:02 PM on February 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
That Texas Star Party video is awesome too!
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 11:02 PM on February 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
thatjudkins, I'm sure I've seen this before out there somewhere. There would be fewer videos of it though, as it would take a full year to make such a video...
posted by ZaneJ. at 11:29 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by ZaneJ. at 11:29 PM on February 27, 2011
Not a sun rise, but a galaxy rise.
It's more like a galaxy set, but it's still sagans worth of awesome. That Texas Star Party video is amazing as well.
posted by Avelwood at 11:48 PM on February 27, 2011
It's more like a galaxy set, but it's still sagans worth of awesome. That Texas Star Party video is amazing as well.
posted by Avelwood at 11:48 PM on February 27, 2011
"... across the sea of space the stars are other suns ..."
posted by bwg at 12:15 AM on February 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by bwg at 12:15 AM on February 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
I still remember the feeling I got when my view of the night sky changed. At first it just appears as random points of light. Then you realize each of these points is a Sun like ours but so far away.
Then later you realize that you are really looking at this unimaginably massive massive thing - our own galaxy - and most of the little lights are basically just foreground noise, like dust on a lens.
Which is to say...thanks for the post!
posted by vacapinta at 2:19 AM on February 28, 2011
Then later you realize that you are really looking at this unimaginably massive massive thing - our own galaxy - and most of the little lights are basically just foreground noise, like dust on a lens.
Which is to say...thanks for the post!
posted by vacapinta at 2:19 AM on February 28, 2011
Milky Way over Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador
posted by lukemeister at 5:24 AM on February 28, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by lukemeister at 5:24 AM on February 28, 2011 [4 favorites]
Lovely.
It's nice to compare the flickering human activity on the bottom of the screen with the stately, vast migration above.
posted by doctornemo at 5:31 AM on February 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
It's nice to compare the flickering human activity on the bottom of the screen with the stately, vast migration above.
posted by doctornemo at 5:31 AM on February 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
Absolutely gorgeous.
It's amazing to think of this giant distant mass in the night sky, a great impending unknown; in this world of technology and instantaneous information, it's humbling to see this sort of thing with the naked eye, and feel the same sense of awe and wonder as our ancestors did.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 6:00 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
It's amazing to think of this giant distant mass in the night sky, a great impending unknown; in this world of technology and instantaneous information, it's humbling to see this sort of thing with the naked eye, and feel the same sense of awe and wonder as our ancestors did.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 6:00 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Wow -- so much light pollution! I'm having a problem figuring out what light sources he's directly above and across from that would spill that much light. Lookin' towards Tahoe City from Incline, maybe? Seems like we're looking a bit northwest based on how night falls and rises.
I like how aviation tapers off like its own clock: not much flying over the mountains past 11 or so...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 6:06 AM on February 28, 2011
I like how aviation tapers off like its own clock: not much flying over the mountains past 11 or so...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 6:06 AM on February 28, 2011
Wow -- so much light pollution!
Not really; except for around the casinos Tahoe is really quite dark compared to most areas in the US. (I grew up in in south shore, and it's really killing me that I can't figure out from what part of the lake this was shot -- none of the handy landmark mountains are visible.)
It's more that in order to make the stars visible the guy had to use very long exposures (he says "30 sec exposures at f1.8"), so the lights on the ground blow out like crazy.
posted by ook at 6:33 AM on February 28, 2011
Not really; except for around the casinos Tahoe is really quite dark compared to most areas in the US. (I grew up in in south shore, and it's really killing me that I can't figure out from what part of the lake this was shot -- none of the handy landmark mountains are visible.)
It's more that in order to make the stars visible the guy had to use very long exposures (he says "30 sec exposures at f1.8"), so the lights on the ground blow out like crazy.
posted by ook at 6:33 AM on February 28, 2011
What a lovely way to start my morning.
posted by immlass at 6:43 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by immlass at 6:43 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Holy shit; the big view at lukemeister's Ecuador volcano night sky link is amazing. Be sure to wait for the clouds to clear at :30. After 1:19 you start to see the flashlights of the folks climbing the glacier, which is a neat way to judge the scale. So gorgeous.
posted by mediareport at 6:52 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by mediareport at 6:52 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
So, having lived in light-polluted places all my life, my question is: does the sky really look like that if you're out there, or is the majority of that just long-exposure photography? Not necessarily this Lake Tahoe thing in particular, but any of the linked examples.
posted by curious nu at 8:08 AM on February 28, 2011
Also, previously and previouslier if you want a soundtrack to go along with it.
posted by curious nu at 8:26 AM on February 28, 2011
posted by curious nu at 8:26 AM on February 28, 2011
> So, having lived in light-polluted places all my life, my question is: does the sky really look like that if you're out there, or is the majority of that just long-exposure photography? Not necessarily this Lake Tahoe thing in particular, but any of the linked examples.
I grew up in Perth, Western Australia (often called 'the most isolated city in the world') and yeah, the sky really looks like that. I used to go night fishing on the beach with my dad as a kid, and when I got bored I'd lie buried up to my neck in sand, inventing my own constellations. Depending on the weather, sometimes you'd only be able to see the few thousand brightest stars, and sometimes the sky would be a glimmering carpet.
I now live in London, where the night sky glows a dull sodium yellow. I can't tell you how much I miss those stars.
posted by hot soup girl at 8:26 AM on February 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
I grew up in Perth, Western Australia (often called 'the most isolated city in the world') and yeah, the sky really looks like that. I used to go night fishing on the beach with my dad as a kid, and when I got bored I'd lie buried up to my neck in sand, inventing my own constellations. Depending on the weather, sometimes you'd only be able to see the few thousand brightest stars, and sometimes the sky would be a glimmering carpet.
I now live in London, where the night sky glows a dull sodium yellow. I can't tell you how much I miss those stars.
posted by hot soup girl at 8:26 AM on February 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
does the sky really look like that if you're out there
Pretty much, yeah. You might not be able to see the subtle color variations, but the milky way becomes much more than just a denser band of stars.
posted by zsazsa at 8:53 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Pretty much, yeah. You might not be able to see the subtle color variations, but the milky way becomes much more than just a denser band of stars.
posted by zsazsa at 8:53 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Awesome stuffs!!
Made me go back and re-find this video (a bit longer, one or two f-bombs, and touches of vanilla agnosticism)
My "Space" bookmark folder is growing. Funny, that.
posted by Artichoke Dance Off!! at 9:02 AM on February 28, 2011
Made me go back and re-find this video (a bit longer, one or two f-bombs, and touches of vanilla agnosticism)
My "Space" bookmark folder is growing. Funny, that.
posted by Artichoke Dance Off!! at 9:02 AM on February 28, 2011
Fun fact: Our name for the Milky Way originates from a Greek myth that when Hera married Zeus she sprayed her milk across the heavens.
posted by cman at 9:10 AM on February 28, 2011
posted by cman at 9:10 AM on February 28, 2011
does the sky really look like that if you're out there
zsazsa's overselling it a bit; these long exposures show a lot more light than the human eye can see. The milky way is visible, and it doesn't look like just a lot of stars -- but you don't see anything remotely like the kind of detail here.
To give you an indication of what it looks like: one night years ago I was driving through some middle-of-nowhere high-altitude desert with a friend who'd lived in NYC all her life; we pulled over at one point to look at the stars, and she pointed up at the milky way and said "what is that? Is that a cloud? Is it pollution?"
posted by ook at 9:11 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
zsazsa's overselling it a bit; these long exposures show a lot more light than the human eye can see. The milky way is visible, and it doesn't look like just a lot of stars -- but you don't see anything remotely like the kind of detail here.
To give you an indication of what it looks like: one night years ago I was driving through some middle-of-nowhere high-altitude desert with a friend who'd lived in NYC all her life; we pulled over at one point to look at the stars, and she pointed up at the milky way and said "what is that? Is that a cloud? Is it pollution?"
posted by ook at 9:11 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
curious nu: the family house we stay at on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe has a sky dark enough to see the milky way (where you can get a look through the trees). It doesn't look like the picture--which has way more detail and color variation than you see just looking up. The sky up the mountain from the lake where we are looks like a black sky with really bright stars, dimmer stars and fuzzy grey places that are the milky way, like ook describes.
posted by crush-onastick at 10:29 AM on February 28, 2011
posted by crush-onastick at 10:29 AM on February 28, 2011
I hope some day I wake to a morning filled with 400 billion cream buns.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:34 AM on February 28, 2011
posted by Wolfdog at 10:34 AM on February 28, 2011
The speed of the timelapse reminded me of nighttime in Minecraft. But yes, this was really beautiful.
posted by exlotuseater at 11:16 AM on February 28, 2011
posted by exlotuseater at 11:16 AM on February 28, 2011
As a child growing up in the suburbs, I thought the Milky Way shown in books was a gross exaggeration. Then I spent two months in Peru, where the Milky Way arches almost overhead. It was not an exaggeration.
posted by lukemeister at 1:45 PM on February 28, 2011
posted by lukemeister at 1:45 PM on February 28, 2011
zsazsa's overselling it a bit; these long exposures show a lot more light than the human eye can see. The milky way is visible, and it doesn't look like just a lot of stars -- but you don't see anything remotely like the kind of detail here.
Under ideal conditions I suppose you could get pretty close. I'm thinking of a particular time, on a really clear night, at about 13,000 feet which is a fair bit above the clouds, thin air, remote location with little air particle pollution and no light pollution where you wander off at 3am and shut off your torch and wait for your eyes to adjust. The main thing at that point is the thickness of the air - the light from distant suns has travelled trillions of kilometers unimpeded through vacuum only to hit our atmosphere. I'd assume the view is even better from higher mountains.
posted by xdvesper at 4:52 PM on February 28, 2011
Under ideal conditions I suppose you could get pretty close. I'm thinking of a particular time, on a really clear night, at about 13,000 feet which is a fair bit above the clouds, thin air, remote location with little air particle pollution and no light pollution where you wander off at 3am and shut off your torch and wait for your eyes to adjust. The main thing at that point is the thickness of the air - the light from distant suns has travelled trillions of kilometers unimpeded through vacuum only to hit our atmosphere. I'd assume the view is even better from higher mountains.
posted by xdvesper at 4:52 PM on February 28, 2011
lukemeister's Ecuador volcano night sky is frigging incredible, and the best part is that if you pause the video about halfway though you can use the scrub bar to move the footage back and forth and it kind of feels like you're DJ God on the galactic wheels of steel scratching the universe.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 7:53 PM on February 28, 2011
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 7:53 PM on February 28, 2011
I gotta do this from the top of Mauna Kea someday when there's no moon and no clouds.
posted by gen at 5:29 AM on March 1, 2011
posted by gen at 5:29 AM on March 1, 2011
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posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:17 PM on February 27, 2011