Milky Way

Have you ever looked up in the night sky and seen the Milky Way? I was watching a few videos on YouTube and it suddenly dawned on me (excuse the pun) that most people have never actually seen the stars, as the "light pollution" totally blocks the view.



Here are a couple of videos of what our night sky really looks like, if we don't have city lights shining all the time, and no "light pollution" to obscure the beautiful view (this is what the ancients would have seen all the time, no wonder they had amazing stories about the universe).

I liked some of the comments:

Yep. It's also known as "light pollution", whereas light in urban areas actually ends up shining outward, towards the sky, rather than downwards, where it's needed. This obscures almost all the stars visible from Earth. It's actually quite difficult to get shots like this. You need absolute darkness, no moon, and you need to be there when the Milky Way actually "rises" like we see in the video. But it's really worth going the way to witness this.
And:

have NEVER seen the sky like that. is it because i live in urban environment??
Or:

man I hate living in light polluted areas... I wish i lived out somewhere like this to see the night sky all the time.


The Japanese name, 銀河系 (ginga kei) means "galaxy" with the character for silver (gin) showing the way. Another common name is 天の川 (amanokawa) or "heavenly river" which sounds rather poetic! Here is a slow, beautiful time lapse movie of the Amanokawa from Lake Hakuba:



And here is a similar video from Kirigamine, Nagano, Japan, of sun rise and Milky Way rising:



I haven't done these posts recently, tagged "universe" but this is a good one:

Comments

Thank you for this beautiful post...being in a completely dark place (possible on a farm or cabin in the countryside) is hauntingly beautiful. This is how we were meant to live, in a dark night - without complete darkness and sleep in the middle of the night, our pituitary glands don't function well); don't understand the wasteful consumption of "light" at night.
Pandabonium said…
Nice post. I used to see a lot of stars in Hawaii - when away from street lights - and I'd have my kids come outside and lay on the grass to watch meteor showers.

The best view I ever got was while camping in the deserts of southern California.

The night sky is something very important in human development - mentally and spiritually - which too many are sadly missing today.
Tom O said…
Hey, all those ancients staring at the sky at night and nothing else to do - tv takes care of that now! Bet they wish they had all those reality shows available back then in their caves/homes of stone.

Light pollution, amazing how prevalent and a spoiler it is. For our benefit and 'protection' of course but still...

Hawaii - isn't one of the world's major telescopes locates in those parts? Precisely because of the quality of the 'sky' there??

For my part (bearing in mind this not really possibly growing up in London, living in Tokyo etc)- meteor showers (or as Tintin would have it 'Shooting Stars'), on the beach on Sado, after Kodo concert and lying by a fire looking straight up. Just amazing and of course spiritual. Milky Way, southern hemisphere, by the coast north of Christchurch, NZ, late at night after all the lights off after some beers, lying outside for ages just looking up, not believing that there ARE there many stars up there (and wondering how all the 'time' it would have taken it for the various light to travel).

One of the points that I think is made in Bladerunner is that being 'amongst the stars' instigates a sense of awe/wonder/spirituality in the Replicants. Which is why the 'I want life...' sentence is said.

Anyway, back to my mind-numbing tv dance/soap/shopping tv shows..
Pandabonium said…
Tom - yes, there are six observatories on Haleakala (elev. 10,028 ft.) on Maui and over a dozen on Mauna Kea (13,796 ft.) on the island of Hawaii. In addition to the altitude, the air reaching the islands across so much ocean is said to be the cleanest in the world.

Do astronomers watch TV?
Tom O said…
In the UK, and maybe elsewhere, there is only 'one' on tv. I would say he has got millions of people into astronomy over the many years he has been doing his thing in his very unique way (not too many people wear monocles any more..) and he has inspired even leading astronomers themselves, the Queen guitarist Brian May being one such chap.

Here is another who has recently AND is currently also doing a good job. He recently did a very successful BBC series on things astronomy and physics. He was, back in 1990, also the keyboard player of a band, D-Ream, who had a very big hit with 'Things Can Only Get Better'.

http://www.apolloschildren.com/brian/

http://www.apolloschildren.com/brian/mediainfo.html
Tom O said…
Gomen, Panda', thanks for the information about Hawaii. Would be just great to do a 'tour' of all of them!
Tom O said…
Gomen #2, here is the missing link re the legendary Sir Patrick Moore. I think his 'Sky at Night' programme is the longest continuous series in BBC tv history. I remember watching a lot even 35 years ago, formative..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/skyatnight/

http://www.sirpatrickmoore.com/
Tom O said…
Brian May interviewing Sir Patrick Moore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61z0uatXU1k
Martin J Frid said…
Thanks for all the comments & links!

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