Beyond the bounds of Earth

[Primula Baggins]

For beauty from beyond the circles of the world.

To begin:



Not computer art. This is a composite of photos from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. I don't think my tax dollars have ever done more beautiful work.

[ArathornJax]

Prim,

Here is a link that shows not only a similar image of Saturn, but you can see Earth as a light blue star in the upper left of the rings on Saturn's left side.

My other passion is amateur astronomy and here are a couple digital sketches I've done based on observational sketches I've done at my telescopes:

The Double Star Algiebro in the Constellation Leo


Iota Orionis in the constellation Orion.


I won't bore anyone with more, and yes, there is plenty more. Fun hobby, great people and I love it.

[Lalaith]

We're not the least bit bored! Keep showing them!

[ArathornJax]

This is NGC 1535, an object called a planetary nebula. No planets involved, this is a star similar to our sun that has lived out it's existence and has shed its outer shell (the nebula part) and has only a dense core around the size of earth left, called a white dwarf. The are one of my favorite objects because outside of double stars (or more) that have color, these items are some of the few that show color. Most items you see are black and white.

By the time our sun reaches this stage in about 5 billion years Mercury, Venus and possibly the Earth (likely) will be consumed by the Sun as it expands out to become a Red Giant. The Earth may survive as a planet but everything will have been evaporated or melted away by the time this stage is reached. The nickname for NGC 1535 is Cleopatra's Eye, probably from the color of the planetary.



This is a actual picture taken from a 20 inch telescope designed to take pictures (I like sketching them, its A LOT cheaper).

NGC 1535

Any differences are from the size of the scopes between what I viewed and recorded in my sketch, vs. what was made from a series of photo's taken of the object.

[Primula Baggins]

Wow, AJ! Gorgeous! We have an 8-inch scope but haven't had a chance to use it much (too many trees and too much city light where we are). I will have to remember to look for planetary nebulae, the next time we have it out where the seeing is good.

I just like seeing things for myself. The thought that I am looking at this planet, or nebula, or cluster of stars and seeing it as it is (or was when the light left it) with my own eyes—that gives me a shiver.

I love looking at the moon, too. The surface is right in my lap, hugely wider than the field of view. I can almost feel its texture. Cold and lonely dust; harsh light and absolute shadows. Utter stillness.

[Lalaith]

That is beautiful, AJ!

I have a small telescope that I don't know how to use. It came without an instruction manual, and my efforts to figure it out on my own have had limited success. I did recently manage to get Venus in my sights, and we could see that it was in a gibbous phase--which thrilled me to no end!

[Impenitent]

Some awe-inspiring photos of OUR UNIVERSE

Here's just one of them:

[Primula Baggins]

That's gorgeous! Cameras can see so much better than our eyes can—if you looked at a nebula like that through an optical telescope, it would be gray; our color vision can't collect enough photons to register. Cameras can, especially with long exposures. And, of course, images are sometimes combinations of different kinds of telescopes, and the images are colored falsely to show what kind of telescope saw which part. But the results are beautiful, and some of the images at the link are the colors we would see if we were close enough (and not looking at it through an atmosphere).

[Impenitent]

Awe-inspiring, isn't it?

[Inanna]

Mind blowing.


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Please bear with my typos & grammar mistakes. Sent from my iPhone - Palantirs make mistakes too.

[Primula Baggins]

Imagine living on a planet in the middle of nebulae like that—having that in your night sky.

(Well, I guess I did imagine it. )

[Impenitent]

And now I'm imagining it again .

[Primula Baggins]

And here's another sunset on Mars, taken by the Curiosity Rover.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/ima ... _hires.jpg

Full raw image:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images ... 0_DXXX.jpg

[yovargas]

Oooooooh, that's cooooooool.

[Inanna]

WOW! I second Yov that is coooooool


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Please bear with my typos & grammar mistakes. Sent from my iPhone - Palantirs make mistakes too.

[Primula Baggins]

Here it is:

[Impenitent]

The sun looks so little! I mean...of course it does, at almost twice the distance from earth, but actually SEEING it. Blows my mind.

[Primula Baggins]

It's small, and cold, and lonely, and you can imagine the whistle of the wind if the atmosphere were thick enough for you to hear it.

But it's a world. A landscape. Our people will walk there someday, maybe even live there.

(It's a little over half again as far from the sun as we are—161 million miles compared to 93 million.)

[yovargas]

I wonder if other animals have evolved something similar to our ability to appreciate "beauty". I think of that while looking at that picture because in a way it is odd that we often find these kinds of raw, extreme, brutal, inhospitable places (glaciers, deserts, oceans, space, ect) deeply "beautiful" when, evolutionarily speaking, you'd think fear would be the more useful emotion. But then, our species' adventurous spirit has gotten us quite far - and will likely lead us much farther....

[Primula Baggins]

I saw this image on Instagram and loved it instantly:



Because it looks like a shot from a science fiction film, but it's real. Not the future; five years ago. U.S. astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson enjoying the view from the International Space Station.