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Sam Rua | all galleries >> Galleries >> Death Valley National Park > Dante's Sky
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02 January 2014 Sam Rua

Dante's Sky

Death Valley National Park

The view of the night sky as seen from Dante's View. It took me a while
to figure out that the orange glow to the south (7 o'clock position in this
image) was actually from Los Angeles, more than 200 miles away.

Here is an animated gif with some objects of interest labeled.
Your astronomy lesson for the day is a brief discussion of the
difference between the Milky Way and the Zodiacal Light.
Most of us are familiar with the Milky Way which, if fortunate
enough to be in an area with little light pollution, is that band
of starlight most prominent in the summer evenings. That band
of light is from the billions of stars seen when looking through
one of the arms of our galaxy.

The Zodiacal Light is a slightly rarer phenomenon where, again
if fortunate enough to be in an area with little light pollution, one
sees an elongated triangle of light around astronomical twilight very
near where the Sun sets or rises. This faint glow is actually sunlight
being reflected off of the dust particles that are the remnants of the
material that formed the planets in our solar system. So that band of
light is not from billions of stars, but from one star, our Sun, as being
reflected off of lots of dust particles. Kind of like what one sees when
shining a flashlight into the fog.

You can also see the Andromeda Galaxy in this image which is the most distant object that can
be seen with the naked eye, some 2.5 million lightyears away. So the light from Las Vegas took
about 0.1 milliseconds to reach Dante's View, the light from Los Angeles took about 0.3 milliseconds,
the light reflected from Jupiter (about 400 million miles away on this date) took about 35 minutes,
and the light from the Andromeda Galaxy took 2.5 million years. Amazing stuff.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III ,Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM
tripod, remote cable release, 15s @ ISO 8000 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Lillian Rodriguez31-Jan-2014 04:10
Really amazing detail on this night capture! Great choice of the fisheye lens to capture the vast sky! BV
Osman Yazirdag28-Jan-2014 19:10
Wow!! This is absolutely one fantastic image along with truly amazing info, Sam! Thanks! vVv
Helen Betts26-Jan-2014 07:26
Wow, fantastic capture, and thanks for the information and animation as well. Simply amazing. V.
Guest 25-Jan-2014 22:22
Wow, amazing! and a uniquely creative presentation.
Neil Marcus25-Jan-2014 22:14
Your skill in manipulations alone are worth a vote. Amazing what you do."V"
Glenn Dean (Vatorman)25-Jan-2014 21:03
Mind blown!
Martin Lamoon25-Jan-2014 20:03
Stunning shot of the night sky.
v
globalgadabout25-Jan-2014 17:41
captivating...well done to ID the local (relatively) light sources...the wispy zodiacal light is the icing on the cosmic cake..V
Gary A. Rich (GRainelev)25-Jan-2014 17:25
Awesome image. Really makes you think, how small we humans are compared everything in the sky, doesn't it. Thanks for the lesson. Great work. V.
Guest 25-Jan-2014 15:55
Awesome capture of the night sky...
Jim Coffman25-Jan-2014 14:00
Truly amazing,Sam!
fotabug25-Jan-2014 13:55
Mind boggling and humbling! V
pkocinski25-Jan-2014 12:47
Fantastic work Sam!
anuschka25-Jan-2014 12:16
Thanks for the image and the lesson, great stuff! V
Paolo Peggi (aka Bracciodiferro)25-Jan-2014 10:50
Very good catch,thanks for sharing.Vote
Paolo
Mike H.25-Jan-2014 09:37
What a grand image presentation replete with pertinent facts; enlightening!
Fine work, Sam.
joseantonio25-Jan-2014 08:04
Wow, what an amazing capture.Thank you for showing.V
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