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APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 5:09 am
by APOD Robot
Milky Way over the Pinnacles in Australia
Explanation: What strange world is this?
Earth. In the foreground of the featured image are the
Pinnacles, unusual rock spires in
Nambung National Park in Western
Australia. Made of ancient sea shells (
limestone), how these human-sized
picturesque spires formed remains unknown. In the background, just past the end of the central Pinnacle, is a bright crescent Moon. The eerie glow around the Moon is mostly
zodiacal light, sunlight reflected by dust grains orbiting between the planets in the
Solar System. Arching across the top is the central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy. Many famous
stars and
nebula are also visible in the background night sky. The featured 29-panel panorama was taken and composed last September after detailed planning that involved the Moon, the rock spires, and their corresponding
shadows. Even so, the strong zodiacal light was a pleasant
surprise.
[/b]
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 5:31 am
by Nitpicker
I like how you squeezed two five separate links into "Earth". Lovely APOD.
pluto
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:55 am
by heehaw
And I liked the surprise!
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 1:07 pm
by rstevenson
I'm wondering about the other two bright areas on the horizon. If this is the setting Moon, I can't see much of anything (in Google Maps) west of the Pinnacles except for Hangover Bay. Maybe there's some off-shore rigs that are well lit all night? Or is it a rising Moon, and there's something bright to the east?
Rob
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 1:15 pm
by NCTom
Great shot. A rollover identifying some of the various galactic neighbors would have been a nice addition.
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 1:59 pm
by Ann
heehaw wrote:And I liked the surprise!
Me too!
Of course, me being a
cat person...
Ann
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:22 am
by BillBixby
NCTom wrote:Great shot. A rollover identifying some of the various galactic neighbors would have been a nice addition.
If it helps, click the E of the five links in the word Earth for a roll over
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2016 1:01 pm
by NCTom
Thanks for the reference. I always can use a little (lot of!) help.
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2016 10:30 pm
by Nitpicker
rstevenson wrote:I'm wondering about the other two bright areas on the horizon. If this is the setting Moon, I can't see much of anything (in Google Maps) west of the Pinnacles except for Hangover Bay. Maybe there's some off-shore rigs that are well lit all night? Or is it a rising Moon, and there's something bright to the east?
Rob
I think that is the town of Cervantes, about 12 km to the NNW. The galaxy spans the horizon from left to right in the APOD, roughly from the SW to the NNE. The young, setting Moon is roughly to the West.
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 11:47 am
by Errolhunt
Why is the Milky Way curved in this image?
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 12:24 pm
by geckzilla
Errolhunt wrote:Why is the Milky Way curved in this image?
Conversion of sphere to flat rectangle.
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 2:02 pm
by rstevenson
Nitpicker wrote:rstevenson wrote:I'm wondering about the other two bright areas on the horizon. If this is the setting Moon, I can't see much of anything (in Google Maps) west of the Pinnacles except for Hangover Bay. Maybe there's some off-shore rigs that are well lit all night? Or is it a rising Moon, and there's something bright to the east?
I think that is the town of Cervantes, about 12 km to the NNW. The galaxy spans the horizon from left to right in the APOD, roughly from the SW to the NNE. The young, setting Moon is roughly to the West.
Thanks nit. I wasn't thinking of the wide span of the Milky Way, and therefore was tilting at the wrong windmill. Cervantes it is, I'm sure.
Rob
Re: APOD: Milky Way over the Pinnacles in... (2016 Feb 17)
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 4:09 pm
by neufer
rstevenson wrote:Nitpicker wrote:rstevenson wrote:
I'm wondering about the other two bright areas on the horizon. If this is the setting Moon, I can't see much of anything (in Google Maps) west of the Pinnacles except for Hangover Bay. Maybe there's some off-shore rigs that are well lit all night? Or is it a rising Moon, and there's something bright to the east?
I think that is the town of Cervantes, about 12 km to the NNW. The galaxy spans the horizon from left to right in the APOD, roughly from the SW to the NNE. The young, setting Moon is roughly to the West.
Thanks nit. I wasn't thinking of the wide span of the Milky Way, and therefore was tilting at the wrong windmill. Cervantes it is, I'm sure.
Not to mention nearby Lake Thetis with its 3.5 billion year old inhabitants
(
way older than anything in
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150223.html )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Thetis wrote:
<<Lake Thetis is a saline coastal lake in the mid-western region of Western Australia. The lake is situated east of the small town Cervantes, 2 kilometres inland from the Indian Ocean. The lake is one of only a few places in the world with living marine stromatolites. The Lake Thetis stromatolites exhibit unusual columnar branching. These narrow, closely spaced and almost parallel columns are extremely rare in modern stromatolites.
Stromatolites (from Greek στρώμα, strōma, mattress, bed, stratum, and λίθος, lithos, rock) are layered bio-chemical accretionary structures formed in shallow water by the trapping, binding and cementation of sedimentary grains by biofilms (microbial mats) of microorganisms, especially cyanobacteria. Fossilized stromatolites provide ancient records of life on Earth by these remains, which might date from more than 3.5 billion years. Lichen stromatolites are a proposed mechanism of formation of some kinds of layered rock structure that is formed above water, where rock meets air, by repeated colonization of the rock by endolithic lichens>>