Beautiful Milky Way Panorama from Mauna Kea

[pokerfan]

Mauna Kea Milky Way Panorama
Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (TWAN)

Click http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090219.html">here for a description and a link to a larger (2788px × 600px) version of the image.

[ananda]

1. Breathtaking..

.. so gorgeous.

Thank you!

[damntexdem]

4. Yeah, nice. But wait -- is that milk past its expiration date?

Whoo, smell that -- better make cheese!

[GodlessBiker]

Holy crap. Magnificent.

[peacetalksforall]

2. WHAT AN ARTIST !!!!

[peacetalksforall]

3. "Have you seen the stars tonight?"

[Arctic Dave]

5. One of the thing that I enjoyed while I was in the Navy

was being out on mid watch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and looking up into the night sky and seeing it without light pollution. To see so many stars and fell like you could reach up and grab them was a beautiful feeling.

[pokerfan]

6. One of the things I like about going into the backcountry

is accessing truly dark skies.

Our astronomy club has a dark sky site but there is a fair amount of sky glow to the north from the city thirty miles away. Light pollution is a problem that few people seem to care about.



I have an astronomer friend in Tucson and he once gave me a tour of the surrounding observatories. I remember spending the night at the MMT on Graham Mountain. Now those were the darkest skies I've ever seen. I even spotted Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) for the first time:



It's not a Messier object because at -47° dec it was simply too far south for Charles to have cataloged from Europe. The biggest and brightest globular cluster in the night sky it's about the size of the full moon.

[alstephenson]

7. I just returned yesterday from the Big Island.

I didn't make it up to the observatory this trip, but I'll be sure to go next trip. Beautiful picture.

[LynzM]

8. Oh, wow....

Phenomenal... no good words.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Beautiful!

Thanks for posting that.

[dave123williams]

10. I've BEEN there!

Here's a link to a panorama of the sun coming up over the clouds from the summit at dawn:

http://dave.hero.com/hale_akala.htm

:) It's really something you never forget...

[Kurovski]

12. And you never offered to take us!

Well, just thank a whole big heap, pal. :cry:

[silverweb]

11. Gorgeous!

:wow: