Posted on 06/06/2011 6:20:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
[Credit & Copyright: Robert Arn (Colorado St. U.) ] Explanation: If you travel several kilometers off a main highway through Wyoming, you may see an unusual sight. In particular, near Buford, Wyoming, USA, you could run across the geometric Ames Monument, visible on the right, built to commemorate the financiers of a historic transcontinental railroad across North America. The above spectacular wide field mosaic, however, has also captured other geometric designs, many of them far in the distance. On the far left, for example, is a lunar halo surrounding by a lunar corona surrounding the setting Moon. On the right, however, is the arch of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy surrounding the pyramidal structure. Illuminating the horizon to the right of the monument are the city lights of Cheyenne. The menagerie of images used to create this 360-degree composite were all taken during a single night last month. Still, the digital stitching of images taken over such a long period of time has led to a few unnatural land and sky justapositions. Can you identify any?
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It isn’t astronomy, but have you seen any of the lightening pictures from the volcano that is erupting in Chili??
Amazing!
I’ll say those four stars to the right of the monument are part of Sagittarius....things are a bit distorted.
Not for that eruption, but would like to see ‘em. If you post the topic, I will come. :’)
If you look at the large format picture, on the upper left you will see Coma Berenices, a large open cluster. Move to the right along the top and you will see the big dipper, open to the right with the pointer stars at the bottom. The handle looks severely bent due to the extreme projection. Follow the pointer stars to the right, but drooping down quite a bit, and you will see Polaris as a bright blue star, the brightest in the vicinity. Further down and to the right you will see Cassiopeia near the horizon, looking rather small.
“Trust me I know what I’m doing”
There’s a serious problem with the registration between the Milky Way photo and the stars of the night sky. The bright cluster to the upper left of the sun, right of the monument, is indubitably the upper portion of Scorpio, which in actuality lies above and to the right of the portion of the Milky Way which is shown to the upper right of Scorpio in the picture. ( The pink blob is the Lagoon Nebula. )
Both the Milky Way and the stars appear about right with the horizon, as far as the limit of visibility goes, but they seem to have been projected differently.
The whole thing reminds me of a Dali painting: “The Persistence of Photoshop”
I know way too much useless information.
Maybe mine are not the best standards to go by, but I found all of that to be pretty useful. :’) Ghost towns are cool, too.
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