Today's XKCD

[thewayne]

Love me some XKCD!


If you click on the link to the comic, there's hover text if you let your mouse pointer linger over the image.

When I first started dating my wife, driving back and forth from Phoenix to Cloudcroft (not quite 500 miles), it gave me a whole new appreciation for the night sky and hatred for light pollution, and also for how fast celestial objects move. Photographing the lunar eclipse reinforced how fast the moon's orbit is, that's for sure! (it also reinforced how badly I need to either take apart and deep clean my tripod head, which I failed to do when I was in Phoenix two weeks ago, or to replace it, which I can't afford to do right now)

Comments

[seasonoftowers]

It makes my brain itch that this almost looks like Auriga but isn't. And I feel you about the hatred for light pollution - we're losing access to something very important.

[moonhare]

The planetarium at The Boston Museum of Science did a segment on the sky minus light pollution. They showed Orion as he would have appeared when named, complete with scabbard.

We have some clear views to the south and west, but our northeast sky has city light which reflects off even the slightest atmospheric haze.

[thewayne]

I remember going to a star party at White Sands some 11-12 years ago, absolutely amazing.  You didn't need a telescope.  It's funny that all my life and having been married to an astronomer, I've never been to a planetarium.

♦

[foreverdawning]

Working at an observatory and planetarium gave me an appreciation for the night sky. It's very upsetting that in about 10 years, the observatory will probably be defunct because of urbanization and more cities being developed further and further out.

Re: ♦

[thewayne]

Which observatory are you at? We're at Apache Point, she's in charge of the 3.5 meter.

Yeah, light pollution is a definite problem. We've got a ridge between us and most of the nearest city, and the county that's not blanketed by the ridge is very low population density.

We were talking to a Kiwi at the movie theater a few weeks ago, and she was talking about all the observatories in NZ: I spent some time researching it, and aside from radio telescopes, they're all ancient or little Celestron-type things. It was to laugh! :-)

Re: ♦

[foreverdawning]

I'll be sure to browse your photograph tag for sure!

And I work at the George Observatory near Houston, TX in Needville.

Re: ♦

[thewayne]

BTW, if you browse my Photographs tag, I've got some kinda cool star streak photos and several photos of the observatory.  I also have LOTS of photos of the observatory, of the National Solar Observatory at Sunspot, and of the VLA at Socorro on my photography web site.