Astronomy Picture of the Day 3-07-03

NASA ^ | 3-07-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured , along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 March 7

The Star Trails of Kilimanjaro
Credit & Copyright: Dan Heller

Explanation: The night had no moon, but the stars were out. And camped at 16,000 feet on Mt. Kilimanjaro, photographer Dan Heller recorded this marvelous 3 1/2 hour long exposure. Here the landscape is lit mostly by the stars. Flashlights give the tents an erie internal radiance while the greenish glow of distant city lights filters through the clouds below. The view from this famous equatorial African mountain is toward the north, putting Polaris, the pole star, close to the horizon on the far left, near the center of the graceful concentric star trail arcs. In the thin air and clear dark skies, even the ghostly Milky Way left a faint triangular glow as it swept across the middle of the dreamlike scene.

[petuniasevan]

Remember that Toto song, "Africa"?

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti

[petuniasevan]

[MozartLover]

Awesome!

[Freedom2specul8]

Mozart took the words right out of my mouth...totally fantabulous! :)

[herewego]

very cool, thank you!

[WSGilcrest]

You can see more square miles of land atop Kilimanjaro than any place else on earth.

[WSGilcrest]

Does anyone venture to guess where the second most amount of land mass can be seen from?

[petuniasevan]

Um...

Mount Erebus, Antarctica?

[petuniasevan]

Oh. Waitaminute. I'm from California; I used to live in the Sacramento Valley.

If you go to the Bay Area and climb Mt. Diablo (not even a tall mountain!), you can see forever, it seems. That's the place!

[WSGilcrest]

BRAVO!!

From the summit (on a clear day) viewers can see more land than a nywhere else in the world except Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro. Among the sometimes-visible landmarks are Lassen Peak, 185 miles north; the Sierra Nevada Range, 125 miles west; and the San Joaquin Valley, 60 miles to the south. Even the Farallon Islands, 27 miles from San Francisco's shore, can be spotted. Altogether over 40,000 square miles are visible, including 35 of the state's 58 counties.

[WSGilcrest]

the Sierra Nevada Range, 125 miles west

EAST!

[petuniasevan]

Yeah...west would make them the Sierra Seamount. ;-D

[MeekOneGOP]

Very nice . . .

[MeekOneGOP]

Montana? . . .

[WSGilcrest]

El Diablo! About 1/2hr. east of SF.

[firewalk]

Good morning

[Soaring Feather]

Fantastic!

[SpookBrat]

This picture is awesome. I'm in awe! My dad climbed Kilimanjaro.

[MeekOneGOP]

Wow ! I'm in awe too . . .

Mornin' !!

[mikrofon]

What a phenominal photo! It looks so surreal, almost alien, like something culled from a sci-fi site.

The starshine reflecting off the TOP of the clouds is something rarely seen...