Starship Asterisk*

Mars Over the Allalinhorn

Explanation: What's that bright object in the sky? A common question with answers that vary by time and season, the quick answer just after sunset in middle of last month, from the norther hemisphere, was Mars. The above picturesque panorama, taken during a ski trip from the Alps in Switzerland, shows not only Mars, but much more. Pine trees line the foreground, while numerous slopes leading up to the snow covered Allalinhorn mountain are visible in the distance. Stars dot the background, with the Beehive star cluster (M44) visible just below and to the left of Mars, while stars Castor and Pollux peek through the tree tops to the Mars' upper right. Mars will remain bright and in the constellation of the Crab (Cancer) until mid-May.

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Oh dear, how embarrassing. You misspelled peek! ("...while stars Castor and Pollux peak through the tree tops...")

Kinda fits the mountain though.

Benbrilling wrote:Oh dear, how embarrassing. You misspelled peek!

Well, probably not all that embarrassing. It's still a problem with most spell checkers- they're pretty stupid. There are some nice ones starting to show up (like in Google Wave) that are context sensitive, and quite smart. They can catch that kind of misspelling. Pretty cool. No doubt they'll be routine in browsers and other apps in the next year or two.

What time of day is it in the wonderful picture of the "Mars Over the Allalinhorn "? The top seems to be night but the sky over the mountains seems blue like day.

I noticed the blue sky and the brightly-lit mountain top also - it seems a little out of place with the rest of the picture - is this a composite photograph? Was a panorama-type camera, turned on it side, used for it?

I wish that I could see this place in person - it is beautiful!

I just fixed the "peek", "Copyright", and "northern" spellings. My bad. - RJN

Hi there,

the summit of the Allalin is brightly lit by floodlights from the Mittelallalin station below.
A PR-gag of the tourism office in Saas Fee. What a light pollution and waste of energy!
And it is much too bright for star photography as you can see in the overexposed mountain
top and the blue lit sky around the summit.

Time was around local midnight CET (central european time). The image is a vertical
panorama of two consecutive 8s exposures.

Best wishes,


Till

Those are some pretty sparse "pine" trees. Based on the shape of the crowns, I'd bet they're larch trees, most likely (Larix decidua) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Larch. Just in case anyone's wondering...

Perfect image. I can sit on my chair on a clear night, an ice cold one in hand, my grandson wrapped in a blanket next to me and i can just absolutely dazzle him with my sky knowledge. Long Live APOD

I agree with Andres that the trees in the foreground are not "pine" trees, and I think he may be right in calling them Larches. Whatever they are, they're either deciduous or dead!

frabjusday wrote:I agree with Andres that the trees in the foreground are not "pine" trees,
and I think he may be right in calling them Larches.
Whatever they are, they're either deciduous or dead!

Larches are of the pine family (Pinaceae) of the conifer order (Pinales) but they not true "pines" of the pine genus (Pinus).

• [Finnegans Wake 364.7] There are twingty to twangty
  too thews and leathermail coatschemes penparing to
  hostpost for it valinnteerily with my valued fofavour to the post
  puzzles deparkment with larch parchels' of presents for future
  branch offercings. The green approve the raid! Shaum Baum's bode
  he is amustering in the groves while his shool comes merging along!

neufer wrote:Larches are of the pine family (Pinaceae) of the conifer order (Pinales) but they not true "pines" of the pine genus (Pinus).

And they are deciduous, they are not evergreens.

bystander wrote:

neufer wrote:Larches are of the pine family (Pinaceae) of the conifer order (Pinales) but they not true "pines" of the pine genus (Pinus).

And they are deciduous, they are not evergreens.

The objection is with the APOD statement:

Pine trees line the foreground.

And (deciduous) larches might be said to be pine trees in the broader sense of the word.

The APOD says nothing about their being evergreens.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vxz7_monty-pythons-types-of-trees-22_creation wrote:
Interviewer: Eric ... do you think you could recognize a larch tree?

Eric: (after much deliberation) Don't know.

Interviewer: Michael, do you think you know what a larch tree looks like?

Michael: (bursting into tears) I want to go home.

These trees are definitely larches, I know, I visit the region frequently (and climbed Allalinhorn over ten times).

andres wrote:Those are some pretty sparse "pine" trees. Based on the shape of the crowns, I'd bet they're larch trees, most likely (Larix decidua) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Larch. Just in case anyone's wondering...

I was wondering - thanks andres!

Excellent image, too!

neufer wrote:The objection is with the APOD statement:

Pine trees line the foreground.

And (deciduous) larches might be said to be pine trees in the broader sense of the word.

The APOD says nothing about their being evergreens.

But the APOD link for "pine trees" does lead to the Wikipedia page for the genus Pinus, which as you note, is different from the genus Larix. Not trying to make a big deal out of it--some of us look at stars recreationally but take our trees quite seriously. Y'know, we get a kick out of movies set in exotic locales where the vegetation is 100% California...