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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Astrophotographer Grabs a Snapshot of the Darkest Possible Sky

This is really cool....

From Popular Science, is this report on one man's quest for the darkest skies possible on Earth and photographing it...

www.eso.org/~sguisard/Pagim/darkest_sky.html#Picture3

If you’re going to photograph the cosmos, the first step is to find somewhere really dark where Earthly light pollution won’t spoil your shot. Following this line of thought to its logical limits, astrophotographer Stéphane Guisard went in search of the darkest possible sky he could find here on Earth, and found it at just the right time and place in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The results are these breathtaking shots that on first glance may look noisy and polluted -- until you take a good close-up look at what’s really there.

The images were taken during a new moon, meaning there is no moonlight to mute the incoming light from elsewhere in the universe. Moreover, Guisard took the shot at such a time of year that the Milky Way, usually seen as a band of light across the night sky, is actually circling the horizon. The rim of light surrounding the full-sky views isn’t sunlight or light form nearby cities, but actually the galaxy itself. Guisard also took measures to time the photo so as to minimize this light as well.

The rest of the light you see is known as gegenschein, or sunlight bounced back to earth from particles in solar system. The result is a glimpse of the night sky with the least amount of intrusive, extraneous light that reduces the depth and detail of night sky pics. In the big pic above, you can see both the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds on the left, the Gegenschein effect on the right (it’s stronger opposite the sun) and the constellation Orion at the top. That bright star near the center? That’s no star at all, but Jupiter.

But if you’re just looking at the shots on this page, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Click through the link below to get up close and personal with zoom-able, pan-able versions that really let the stars shine through.

PopSci :

www.popsci.com/node/49345/?cmpid=enews102810

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The interactive webpage is really cool, (go visit it now - you know you want to), but the celestial objects are all "upside down"...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I was thinking that this may not be the absolute darkest location on Earth, as there are more isolated places...

But, I may suggest that it was an accessible location without the trauma of an Antarctic expedition, (with terrible weather), at the mercy of Communists or chased by a lion or a rabid kangaroo.

If accessibility were not a factor...I would say somewhere in the middle of the upper Pacific Ocean or even between the continents of South America and Africa...

The little Island of "Tristan da Cunha" is penned the worlds most remote habited Island would be a good site, but it is populated and with civilization comes trash in all levels.

But "Point Nemo" is the worlds most isolated from any other land mass...

Sitting in the middle of 8,650,778 sq miles of ocean, larger than the entire former Soviet Union.

Or the very Hostile "Bouvet Island"...

Which also lays claim to the most remote spot on Earth. The astronomical views must be something else!

Either way...the Chilean pic is cool.

[patrickm]

Yeah, I'm all over this. Glad you posted as I didn't have a chance yet. Just amazing photography!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

You can actually see the dust lanes in our galaxy in the great pic.

Gives a great seat to our place orbiting around the core.

[RobbW]

I checked out the site and that is really cool. I so wish I could actually go to a REAL dark sky location. The Cathedral Gorge star party I went to last month north of Vegas was relatively dark, but there was still a massive light dome from Vegas and a few other smaller cities nearby. I can't even imagine what it would be like at about 1:30 am on a small island smack in the middle of the Pacific during a new moon. I suppose you'd get over any fear of the dark real quick! How dark do you think that would be? Would it be can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face dark? Or would your eyes eventually adapt and any light from celestial objects would be enough to light your way?

But , seriously, how awesome would it be to be on a dark island in the middle of the Pacific during a new moon? Surrounded by nothing but water and you can see stars all the way down to the horizon in all directions? That would rock!!!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Robb,

In my interactions, I have been told tales of places so dark, that indeed you cannot see your hand in front of your face, but also that the light from the stars faintly illuminate your location...that the light from the planets become "too bright" and destroy night vision to a degree.

I wish to do this, go to an isolated astronomically pristine locale, before I leave for the stars myself.

[RobbW]

Joe, that's a trip I need to start saving up for. Let me know if you ever actually get the chance to go. I'd love to join the expedition. That would be cool if there was any way we could put together a CA trip to a locale like that. Amy keeps telling me about ads and articles she sees online and in magazines about astronomy-related trips/vacations. There are a few stargazing cruises she's found. One goes through the Panama Canal. Another cruises across the Atlantic. There's one on Lake Michigan.

It's funny, as crazy and OCD as she thinks I am about astronomy, she always keeps an eye out for vacations that also have some sort of astronomy aspect to them, whether it's stargazing cruises or nice resorts in Arizona and New Mexico that offer astronomy tours/programs. She's cool like that. She does make fun of me and my obsession a lot, but that's the price I'm required to pay for her to put up with me.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Buzz Aldrin was once asked what was his most memorable moment.

It wasn't the Moon landing, but of when he looked outside of the Apollo space capsule while in orbit on the far side of the darkened Moon and in it's shadow. When he peered out, he saw Millions of stars, of all colors and brilliance, but also "felt" the Moon close by.

Looking in it's direction, with the Sun & Earth on the other side, he saw an empty black void, devoid of anything.

Scary stuff.

[RobbW]

Oh man, imagine the view from space, free from any atmospheric hindrances! Too bad I don't have a spare $200K laying around for one of those commercial space flights in the near future.

[patrickm]

In the Amazon Basin up the Rio Heath, the sky was so dark, and being the Southern Hemisphere flat out strange, that I've never felt so awestruck. I was as exhausted as I have ever been, and was compelled to stay up with our travel binos. Dark nebulae in the Milky Way, like the and Running Chicken, where glaringly obvious with the naked eye. The Jewel Box really was. Saturn glowed magnificently. Ah to head back with a travel scope or my 15x70s!

Closer to home, head up to Lake Superior or Door County!

[RobbW]

Wow, Patrick. That's some traveling. When were you down there?

[patrickm]

Spring break this year. It was great!

gallery.me.com/pmonaghan/100170

[hillimolly]

Patrick The pictures were cool, I like it..

[patrickm]

Thanks.
NOTHING to do with dark sky or astronomy though!

Sorry bout the threadjack, Joe!

Now back to your regularly scheduled astronomy...