Brilliant 360-Degree Panorama of the Milky Way - 800 megapixel

[The Straight Story]

Brilliant 360-Degree Panorama of the Milky Way

You can see the entire Milky Way at once in this panorama painstakingly stitched together by French photographers.

A much larger, zoomable version available from the European Southern Observatory lets you visit any part of the galaxy.

Working in the dark, dry highlands of Chile with a Nikon D3 digital camera (50 mm lens open at f5.6), Serge Brunier and Frédéric Tapissier patched together 1,200 photos of the night sky into the composite that you see above.

While many of the most stunning space images come from huge telescopes or Hubble, Brunier wanted to create photographs of space that were closer to the commonplace human experience of just going outside and looking at the sky.

“I wanted to show a sky that everyone can relate to — with its constellations, its thousands of stars, with names familiar since childhood, its myths shared by all civilizations since Homo became Sapiens,” Brunier said in a release. “The image was therefore made as man sees it, with a regular digital camera under the dark skies in the Atacama Desert and on La Palma.”

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/panorama/

[ddeclue]

1. Yeah but how many of the pixels are "orange" and how many are "green"?

:rofl:

[wroberts189]

5. I see you were here earlier today but this post is not related.

Not that I did not see your humor... :)

[Mind_your_head]

2. It's difficult to admire the heaven's when we are mired with such stupidly

here on Earth, ye in our own country, no less.

[ddeclue]

3. You know the joke right?

Q:Why does SETI search for intelligent life in the heavens?

A:Because they sure as hell ain't gonna find it here!

:rofl:

[Mind_your_head]

4. Never heard that one before, but "yeah" ..... eom

[wroberts189]

6. Thx for the post.. nt .

[stuball111]

7. wow.. makes one feel... insignificant...

and wonder if there is some kind of higher power out there....

[StarryNite]

8. Spectacular!

Damn! We are nothing...just dust in the wind.

[Ghost Dog]

9. Yes. Do be aware of the availability of the new 10.4m telescope on La Palma

(Canary Islands). Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC).

[Peace Patriot]

10. A couple of other gorgeous photos there...

Strange, beautiful nebula
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/photo-strange-star-system-makes-its-own-nebula/

The "Christmas Tree Cluster"
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/xmastreecluster/

As for dumb people (mentioned above), they are spectacular, too. They are their own nebula. Colorfully dense. In a very big fog. Beclouded with "dark matter." Appreciate them as stellar phenomena. Cuz they are, you know. As are we brighter lights.

[zonkers]

11. Wow.