APOD: The Light of Stars (2012 May 08)

[APOD Robot]

The Light of Stars

Explanation: What's moving? Time lapse videos of the sky can be quite spectacular when they last long enough for stars, planets, aurora, and clouds to appear to move in just a few seconds. Pictured above, however, astrovideographer Daniel López not only treats us to several inspiring time lapse videos of the night sky, but shows us how he used sliders and motorized cranes to move the imaging cameras themselves, creating a thrilling three-dimensional sense of depth. The video sequences were taken from Tenerife on the Canary Islands of Spain over the past two months, and show scenes including sunset shadows approaching Observatorio del Tiede, the Milky Way shifting as the sky rotates, bright planets Venus and trailing Jupiter setting, a reddened Moon rising through differing layers of atmospheric refraction, the MAGIC gamma-ray telescopes slewing to observe a new source, and unusual foreground objects including conic Echium wildpretii plants, unusual rock formations, and a spider moving about its web. The video concludes by showing the Belt of Venus descending on Mt. Teide as the morning sun rises.

<< Previous APOD

Discuss Any APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF]MAGIC is sensitive to cosmic gamma rays with energies between 50 GeV and 30 TeV due to its large mirror; other ground-based gamma-ray telescopes typically observe gamma energies above 200-300 GeV. Satellite-based detectors detect gamma-rays in the energy range from keV up to several GeV.[/color][/b]

---

<<MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes) is a system of two Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes situated at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, at about 2200 m above sea level. MAGIC detects particle showers released by gamma rays, using the Cherenkov radiation, i.e., faint light radiated by the charged particles in the showers. With a diameter of 17 meters for the reflecting surface, it is the largest in the world.

The first telescope was built in 2004 and operated for five years in standalone mode. A second MAGIC telescope (MAGIC-II), at a distance of 85 m from the first one, started taking data in July 2009. Together they integrate the MAGIC telescope stereoscopic system.

The goals of the telescope are to detect and study primarily photons coming from:

• Accretion of black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei
  
  Supernova remnants, due to their interest as sources of cosmic rays.
  
  Other galactic sources such as pulsar wind nebulae or X-ray binaries.
  
  Unidentified EGRET or Fermi sources
  
  Gamma ray bursts
  
  Annihilation of Dark matter

MAGIC has found pulsed gamma-rays at energies higher than 25 GeV coming from the Crab Pulsar. The presence of such high energies indicates that the gamma-ray source is far out in the pulsar's magnetosphere, in contradiction with many models.

MAGIC detected very high energy cosmic rays from the quasar 3C 279, which is 5 billion light years from Earth. This doubles the previous record distance from which very high energy cosmic rays have been detected. The signal indicated that the universe is more transparent than previously thought based on data from optical and infrared telescopes.

MAGIC did not observe cosmic rays resulting from dark matter decays in the dwarf galaxy Draco. This strengthens the known constraints on dark matter models.

A much more controversial observation is an energy dependence in the speed of light of cosmic rays coming from a short burst of the blazar Markarian 501 on July 9, 2005. Photons with energies between 1.2 and 10 TeV arrived 4 minutes after those in a band between .25 and .6 TeV. The average delay was .030±.012 seconds per GeV of energy of the photon. If the relation between the space velocity of a photon and its energy is linear, then this translates into the fractional difference in the speed of light being equal to minus the photon's energy divided by 2×10¹⁷GeV.>>

[florid_snow]

El Cielo Canarias is translated "Canary Skies" in the opening title. But the word "cielo" reminds me of the English word "ceiling" which has connotations of a roof, or enclosure. "Le ciel" is the French word for the sky. I know in English we can say either "the sky" or "the heavens" recalling our ancient (and current) mythological beliefs, but to say "the ceiling" to refer to the sky would probably draw funny looks.

Does anyone else think it's neat that language records our previous mistaken beliefs, and that the meaning can change and the silly belief discarded without changing the word? Getting the religious connotation out of the word "disaster" certainly hasn't been a disaster

[Astronymus]

Now we know how it is done.

[Boomer12k]

Awesome video, great music. Interesting to see the Milky Way moving. What type of camera and exposure does it take to get that???

I got my 10" Meade set up last night. It was the first ideal night, this spring. It did it's GPS alignment, and sighted in on a star. It was a little off, and so I pushed the slewing buttons...no go...push, push, push, over and over, and for several minutes trying to loosen up the Autostar 2 buttons...no go...well it is about 8 years old or so. I have a new one ordered, and should be here in a few days.

I did get to look at Crescent Venus manually...and there will be plenty of other nights.

:---[===] *

[Vincent Pinto]

Fabulous! The music perfectly fits the presentation. I'd nominate this to be in the finals of the Best of APOD 2012.

And this movie showeth Daniel's handiwork. Thanks, Daniel, and APOD for sharing. Superb!

[Czerno2]

I think the legend has a typo - t's observatorio del Teide - not de Tiede, dear webmaster please review !
And of course, remove this at the same time if possible.

[owlice]

Thanks, Czerno2.

[Uwe]

Still my question: Why can't I receive the videos? I'm located in Germany, using Firefox 9 with Flash 11. Someone got an idea what's going wrong? Please.
Thank you.

[Moonlady]

Very well done! It is too short!!! I want more!

[geckzilla]

Still my question: Why can't I receive the videos? I'm located in Germany, using Firefox 9 with Flash 11. Someone got an idea what's going wrong? Please.
Thank you.

The latest version of Firefox is 12. So you're a few versions behind. Try updating. Otherwise, try going directly to this URL: http://vimeo.com/37752523

[neufer]

El Cielo Canarias is translated "Canary Skies" in the opening title. But the word "cielo" reminds me of the English word "ceiling" which has connotations of a roof, or enclosure. "Le ciel" is the French word for the sky. I know in English we can say either "the sky" or "the heavens" recalling our ancient (and current) mythological beliefs, but to say "the ceiling" to refer to the sky would probably draw funny looks.

Does anyone else think it's neat that language records our previous mistaken beliefs, and that the meaning can change and the silly belief discarded without changing the word?

Ceiling [OF. celle, fr. L. cella; akin to celare to hide, and E. hell, helm, conceal. Cf. Hall.]
The covering which overlays the inner roof of a building, or the timbers which form the top of a room.
.....................................................
Cellar [OE. celer, OF. celier, F. celier, fr. L. cellarium a receptacle for food, pantry. See Cell.] A room or rooms under a building, and usually below the surface of the ground, where provisions and other stores are kept.
.....................................................
Sky [OE. skie a cloud, Icel. sk; akin to Sw. & Dan. sky; cf. AS. sca, scwa, shadow, Icel. skuggi; probably from the same root as E. scum. &root. See Scum, and cf. Hide skin, Obscure.]

[agulesin]

Anyone looking for an English version of his web page: http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... e%20mi.htm

Next on my shopping list, a set of rails and camera crane. don't worry, I could never compete...

[agulesin]

El Cielo Canarias is translated "Canary Skies" in the opening title. But the word "cielo" reminds me of the English word "ceiling" which has connotations of a roof, or enclosure. "Le ciel" is the French word for the sky. I know in English we can say either "the sky" or "the heavens" recalling our ancient (and current) mythological beliefs, but to say "the ceiling" to refer to the sky would probably draw funny looks.

Does anyone else think it's neat that language records our previous mistaken beliefs, and that the meaning can change and the silly belief discarded without changing the word? Getting the religious connotation out of the word "disaster" certainly hasn't been a disaster

Why is it that some people have to attack others beliefs at every opportunity? If you don't believe in certain things, don't try to prevent others or call them "silly". Never forget this: However "ancient" and "unfashionable" death may appear, no-one has managed to avoid it even in these days of technology and medicine...

[flash]

Why is it that some people have to attack others beliefs at every opportunity? If you don't believe in certain things, don't try to prevent others or call them "silly". Never forget this: However "ancient" and "unfashionable" death may appear, no-one has managed to avoid it even in these days of technology and medicine...

The difference between belief and knowledge is subtle yet distinct: Contrary to popular belief, opinions can be incorrect: If it is your opinion that 2+2=5 then I have no trouble calling your belief silly. And I am not being mean. The purpose of education is to sway beliefs toward the truth. The scientific method provides us with the ability to test beliefs, allowing us to move from belief toward knowledge. We have brains to allow us to make judgments. Judging the expounded beliefs of others is not a bad thing. And "silly" is not the worst thing that a belief could be called. Get over it.

[Chris Peterson]

El Cielo Canarias is translated "Canary Skies" in the opening title. But the word "cielo" reminds me of the English word "ceiling" which has connotations of a roof, or enclosure. "Le ciel" is the French word for the sky. I know in English we can say either "the sky" or "the heavens" recalling our ancient (and current) mythological beliefs, but to say "the ceiling" to refer to the sky would probably draw funny looks.

Does anyone else think it's neat that language records our previous mistaken beliefs, and that the meaning can change and the silly belief discarded without changing the word? Getting the religious connotation out of the word "disaster" certainly hasn't been a disaster :)

Why is it that some people have to attack others beliefs at every opportunity? If you don't believe in certain things, don't try to prevent others or call them "silly". Never forget this: However "ancient" and "unfashionable" death may appear, no-one has managed to avoid it even in these days of technology and medicine...

His point was an interesting and valid one, and the question appropriate to this forum. We do see elements of our mythology (a word we use to describe beliefs we used to have, but no longer do) in language.

(It reminded me of a bit of trivia about the Basque language, which has no relatives, and is so old that its word for "ceiling" literally means "the roof of the cave".)

[FloridaMike]

Word origins have aways intruged me. This is especcially true when the words no longer convey the literal meaning of the original term.

@Chris: The Basque language reference you cited is a charm, thanks for that.
@Flash: WHADAYA mean telling people that "bad stars" don't cause disasters? Can you prove they don't?

[Chris Peterson]

@Flash: WHADAYA mean telling people that "bad stars" don't cause disasters? Can you prove they don't? ;)

If you're a civilization within a few tens of light years of a star that decides to supernova, "disaster" takes on a very literal meaning!

[neufer]

@Flash: WHADAYA mean telling people that "bad stars" don't cause disasters? Can you prove they don't?

If you're a civilization within a few tens of light years of a star that decides to supernova, "disaster" takes on a very literal meaning!

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/entert ... -meltdowns

[Fundit Pundit]

What a cool video. I like so much about it - the scenery, the techniques , the expertise.....obviously a labor of love. I think my favorite scene is the rippley moon rise at about 1:15. Excellent work! Bravo!

[carolh]

I have had APOD as my home page for some time but today I am changing that. The music for today's video (very loud and I personally found it annoying) took over my computer. Even if I muted the video, every time I changed pages it started playing again and I was unable to find where it was playing so unable to turn it off or even mute it. I have moved my home page to another site. I'll just check in from time to time to see your interesting pictures. Bye.

[Chris Peterson]

I have had APOD as my home page for some time but today I am changing that. The music for today's video (very loud and I personally found it annoying) took over my computer. Even if I muted the video, every time I changed pages it started playing again and I was unable to find where it was playing so unable to turn it off or even mute it. I have moved my home page to another site. I'll just check in from time to time to see your interesting pictures. Bye.

It's a page with a video on it, so you can expect it to play when loaded. Such behavior is very common. Autoplay is defined by the content creator, not generally the page with the embedded media.

If you like APOD as your default browser page, just disable it for today. Otherwise, don't let your hard drive hit your backside on the way out.

[Boomer12k]

Not to be controversial, but some religious texts still have the sky as a "dome" over the Earth. That would be a flat Earth at that. There are many astronomical illusions based on perspective. Myth busted. Scientists can be just as dogmatic in their opinion. Anybody remember Fred Hoyle? Conclusions in Science can be wrong too...Ptolemy sure was. Hooray for Copernicus and Galileo.

Keep an open mind.

:---(===) *

[Chris Peterson]

Not to be controversial, but some religious texts still have the sky as a "dome" over the Earth. That would be a flat Earth at that. There are many astronomical illusions based on perspective. Myth busted. Scientists can be just as dogmatic in their opinion. Anybody remember Fred Hoyle? Conclusions in Science can be wrong too...Ptolemy sure was. Hooray for Copernicus and Galileo.

Conclusions are wrong in science all the time. That's a good thing. What make science different from just about every other way of thinking (not just religious) is that it actively seeks to disprove its conclusions. And it succeeds, with the result that what we know about things gets just a little bit closer to the truth. Most knowledge systems start with conclusions and then do everything they can to support them, which often includes tortuous and distorted reasoning. Not so science.

[Microbe]

In future, no auto started video that also have audio - thanks.