Off your lights, load up 720p, full screen, relax.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFpeM3fxJoQ[/media]
Shit's beautiful.
Oh, brilliant.
I really enjoyed that. Especially since I watched it with the lights off and whatnot. Only problem with the video were those white flashes. Those blinded me like nuts.
Holy fuck!
At around 3:30 you really feel the Earth is rotating (Yes I realize it is but you don't normally notice it)
The way the telescopes look around and flap their panels open and closed makes them look like weird giant bugs.
That's so amazing. I love videos like these.
[QUOTE=Patjo_sweden;30104890]Why are the observatories shooting lasers?[/QUOTE]
-corrected-
2:40 - 3:10 That tower on the right is playing space invaders for real :byodood:
The piano part at 1:29 really gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Around 1:45 - those were satellites, not shooting stars, right?
Is it possible to see all this with the naked eye?
[QUOTE=Mad.Hatter;30109956]Is it possible to see all this with the naked eye?[/QUOTE]
If you're in the middle of nowhere, where there's no pollution, you can see the centre of the milky way. But not as clear as in this video.
Hang on, the stars were visible during the day?
[QUOTE=Patjo_sweden;30104890]Why are the observatories shooting lasers?[/QUOTE]
Just firing warning shots across the bows of alien battleships. Don't want them getting too cocky.
[QUOTE=booster;30108614]
I'm not 100% on this (it's just a guess really), but I think it's so they can figure out how far an object is from their position. If they point the laser at something reflective that is.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.[/QUOTE]
Lasers can be used to range find the moon but that's about it. The speed of light suddenly seems pretty slow across distances greater than the moon, not to mention it wouldn't be powerful enough to reflect a detectable amount from any planet or asteroid in the solar system.
I think they use it mainly to measure atmospheric turbulence very accurately so the telescopes can correct for it. It essentially creates an artificial star next to the one you want to observe, and you can see how the brightness of the laser beam varies, allowing you to distinguish whether fluctuations are due to the atmosphere or from the object you're observing.
[editline]29th May 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Silikone;30110462]Hang on, the stars were visible during the day?[/QUOTE]
I think the shots that look like day time are actually in moonlight, but the long exposure of each frame exposes the scene enough to look like daytime.
[QUOTE=petieng;30111092]I think the shots that look like day time are actually in moonlight, but the long exposure of each frame exposes the scene enough to look like daytime.[/QUOTE]
You can see the sun though. 6:22
That was amazing, where is this place?
that was amazing. i love these videos, wish i'd go to a place like that someday only to go out at night and wonder at the stars. living in a city sucks sometimes.
[QUOTE=booster;30108614]That's so amazing. I love videos like these.
I'm not 100% on this (it's just a guess really), but I think it's so they can figure out how far an object is from their position. If they point the laser at something reflective that is.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.[/QUOTE]
Its to calibrate the telescope to fog and atmospheric turbulance, if there is a bit of fog in the upper atmosphere or similar.
I'm studying an astronomy course right now, yeah I learnt about the VLT, but never saw it in action till now.
Wow.
[editline]30th May 2011[/editline]
Also there's the VLA (Very Large Array), you can tell astronomers have a very creative naming scheme.
[editline]30th May 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Rapist;30117115]Its to calibrate the telescope to fog and atmospheric turbulance, if there is a bit of fog in the upper atmosphere or similar.[/QUOTE]
Bingo.
What about satellite laser ranging? They have reflectors for a reason.
Unless I'm mistaken those lasers are far too powerful for stuff like that, it'll more likely be used to calibrate the telescope to point at a guide in the sky, say the Galactic centre, to calibrate the entire telescope against the sky.
[QUOTE=high;30111595]You can see the sun though. 6:22[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty sure that's the moon but overexposed. If you're going to expose a moonlit scene long enough to make it look like daytime, then the moon is going to appear as bright as the sun. You can also tell it's moonlit from the colour of the lighting. It's much whiter than if it was sunlit.
This is a 10 second exposure at night time:
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluegoose9999/3703044529/[/url]
[QUOTE=Mad.Hatter;30109956]Is it possible to see all this with the naked eye?[/QUOTE]
If you flew up and passed the atmosphere of Earth, the whole darkness of space with hundreds of thousands of stars and shit would open up right to your face. Imagine the view..
Smoke weed, get stared, lay on the floor and look at the fucking sky in this place...
And you can see all those stars and galaxies who are all around our planet don't let us alone in the space.
The laser points to the center of the galaxy, pretty much. The color of the laser is precisely tuned to energize a layer of sodium atoms found in one of the upper layers of the atmosphere.
This layer of sodium atoms is thought to be a leftover from meteorites entering the Earth’s atmosphere. When excited by the light from the laser, the atoms start glowing, forming a small bright
spot that can be used as an artificial reference star for the adaptive optics. Using this technique, astronomers can obtain sharper observations. For example, when looking towards the center of our
Milky Way, researchers can better monitor the galactic core, where a central super massive black hole, surrounded by closely orbiting stars, is swallowing gas and dust.
:science:
I love how people always use post-rock for stuff like this. :v:
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