Stars Over Easter Island (2009 Oct 12)

[Star*Hopper]

"...Moai -- on my list (my long long list) of things to see with mine own eyes someday."

Your 'Bucket List'?
Mine too.
Only, it also bears the dreaded 'Prolly Ne'er' asterisk.
Thank Go(d)re for da InnarWebz!

At least, I've landed my LearJet there in Flight Simulator. Oddly enough, in flying a circumnavigation of the island, the next-to-latest Version 9 didn't have the Moai represented, whereas my first (Win95 version, back then), did. And we call ourselves a progressive society!?!

[DavidLeodis]

Thanks geckzilla for the annotation as I wasn't certain which was Sirius and which Canopus. I'm curious though why Sirius (the brightest star in the sky as we see it) appears less bright in the APOD image than Canopus (the second brightest star we see in the sky).

It's definitely the cloud in front of it. It blocked some of the light from Sirius and most of the light from the other stars near Sirius but Sirius is so bright that it pierces through.

Thanks geckzilla.

[urchin]

Stop nitpicking. One needs only to see the majestic beauty in this photo and think that it may one day inspire a young mind into looking at the night sky to ask the most fundamental question in all of science. Why?

[geckzilla]

This forum may as well be called nitpickers-semi-anonymous, urchin. You're in the wrong place if it bothers you.

[neufer]

Stop nitpicking. One needs only to see the majestic beauty in this photo and think that it may one day inspire a young mind into looking at the night sky to ask the most fundamental question in all of science. Why?

• I wonder why.
  I wonder why.
  I wonder why I wonder.
  I wonder why I wonder why I wonder why I wonder!"
  
  --- Richard Feynman at 17

[Star*Hopper]

"I stink, therefore I am."
~Me - At age 15

~*

[neufer]

"I stink, therefore I am."
~Me - At age 15

You can lead a Star*Hopper to soap & water
but you can't make him not stink.

[Star*Hopper]

You can lead a horticulture,
but you can't make her think.
~anon