Meanwhile in Space

[Vibe]

btw I recommend watching the whole thing, imo it's really tense.

Also I just want to mention there are also no guns in space (yet).

holy shit the hype in that place was unreal

[Vibe]

The scale to measure night sky brightness/light pollution is called the Bortle scale.

World map of light polluted areas:

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EU:

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NA:

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This picture of Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula was taken at a Bortle Class 1 site:

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tfw I can't even see Andromeda from my place ;_;

[Xant]

fml, I wish I lived in the undeveloped baltic states.

[Jona]

This thread was long overdue. One of my favorite vacations was to one of the lesser developed regions of Maine, seen as the only gray region in the northeast of this picture:

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While it was a really great vacation for several reasons, chief among them was that the local national park was open 24/7 so you could camp out on the summit of the tallest mountain on the east coast (not saying much, but it is right on the water, which is cool) overnight and just stargaze. It was the first time I ever actually saw the shape of the milky way. To top it off I went during the perseids meteor shower and it was quite a spectacular show to say the least. My only regret is not owning a quality camera that could have taken pictures of the night sky.

[Kafein]

I've been to low light pollution zones in Spain several times, it's amazing how much you can see on a clear night.

[Vibe]

Sombrero Galaxy:

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überhigh resolution version (or click on the above image): http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2003-28-a-full_jpg.jpg

If you noticed there's 2 galaxies together at the bottom, they're called USNOA2 0750-07913885 and USNOA2 0750-07913859:
http://server6.sky-map.org/starview?object_type=1&object_id=746111363

[[ptx]]

I'm absolutely fascinated by quasars. Imagine living in a galaxy with a quasar at the center...

[Xant]

If you noticed there's 2 galaxies together at the bottom, they're called USNOA2 0750-07913885 and USNOA2 0750-07913859:

Just rolls off the tongue, if I ever have kids I'll name them that.

[Molly]

when you look at the Sombrero, you see a bunch of little dots around, figuring them to be stars...


...but when looking at the big picture, they turn out to be their own galaxies. Astonishing.

[Prpavi]

.

[Prpavi]

Light polution is a bitch, I don't see even one star most of the time... Though there is an observatory higher up in the city, the have open doors night 2 nights a week and enterance is free, it's quite a trip,on a clear night, seeing Saturn and his rings just "standing" there so car away is a truly remarkable experience.

[Sir_Hans]

...but when looking at the big picture, they turn out to be their own galaxies. Astonishing.

Yep and it's why I'm convinced that there is some sort of intelligent life out there. (not saying we have been visited/contacted by aliens, I'm just saying it's most likely out there... Somewhere).
I find it much harder to believe that we are the only intelligent life out there and a big part of this is due to images taken by hubble telescope and pondering just how big existence really is.

Take a very tiny portion of the nights sky, a seemingly empty spot of darkness inbetween the stars visible to the naked eye and there is a countless number of galaxies just in that tiny little frame alone.

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And this view is still limited by our technology if we were able to zoom even further into space, between (or more accurately behind) the galaxies visible on our most detailed images taken by hubble we will find an even more countless number of galaxies.

Can't wait for James Webb Space Telescope to launch in 2018!!! <3

It's amazing what humans can accomplish when we aren't preoccupied with killing eachother or amassing wealth/power.

PS: If you ever come to hawai'i make a trip to the Big Island (island of Hawai'i) and go to the summit of Mauna Kea (4205m) for some of the best stargazing you will ever see in your entire life. You will need a 4wd vehicle or there are plenty of tour companies with offer trips up to the summit to see the sunset and then stargazing (or stargazing and then the sunrise) for around $100-$200.

[Kafein]

The question of whether we are alone in the universe has little practical implications. Whether we are alone in the galaxy is a bit more interesting, and I'd be tempted to say we are probably not alone in the galaxy, still. Out of a few thousand, we already know of a couple planets with potential liquid water. There are a couple hundred billion star systems in the galaxy, more than one hundred billion planets.

[Sir_Hans]

The question of whether we are alone in the universe has little practical implications. Whether we are alone in the galaxy is a bit more interesting, and I'd be tempted to say we are probably not alone in the galaxy, still. Out of a few thousand, we already know of a couple planets with potential liquid water. There are a couple hundred billion star systems in the galaxy, more than one hundred billion planets.

I would agree there's probably life in our galaxy though, I just choose to ponder about all existence because for me it leaves little doubt simply because the number of solar systems in existence is so mind boggling'ly great.... the number of solar systems goes from 200,000,000,000ish in our own galaxy to something like 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 solar systems in existence simply just making it more probable if were pondering the existence of intelligent life.

I don't see any practical implications of pondering the existence of life in our galaxy vs life in existence... a neighboring star system and a neighboring galaxy are both well out of reach of us humans. Even our fastest space probe we could build today would probably take more time to reach alpha centauri than the amount of time humans have inhabited the earth so far.

[Xant]

Yes, but with the caveat: "with our current technology." Remember, a hundred years ago the mere idea of flying to the moon would have seemed completely bonkers.