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My apologies, Rob, not really Hawaii or Puna related, but will point out that the Andromeda galaxy is the only other spiral galaxy (other than the Milky Way that is) visible with the naked eye from Hawaii. If anyone needs instructions on finding it in the sky, I'll be happy to post instructions.
Anyway, an incredible image of part of Andromeda has been released:
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1502/
Best link is this though:
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/hei.../zoomable/
where you can zoom in and move around. Bear in mind Andromeda is a similar galaxy to our own, so you're getting an impression of how we might look to any Andromedians out there...
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PS. Apologies - not recommended for those on dialup.
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Aloha, Mr. Tom. Happy New Year!
I have the mo'opuna lined up at the computer to watch this. [
] (We also watched the meteor shower, and the Lovejoy comet (with "somemores" over the fire, and a nearly full moon...)
Fantastic.
Mahalo, again.
JMO.
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Thank you, Opihikao, and Happy New year to you as well!
Although when I was a kid astronomical images did not have the resolution that we have now my fascination in science and the universe began when I looked at similar to this in astronomy books. I've done OK since then and hope that maybe one or two of your grand children are influenced the same way!
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can you see any of this with the naked eye?
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You can see Andromeda with the naked eye, but no, not in the same way. It's a faint blur.
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Thanks for posting that, what an awe-inspiring image.
From the linked article:
"This sweeping view shows one third of our galactic neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy, with stunning clarity. The panoramic image has a staggering 1.5 billion pixels — meaning you would need more than 600 HD television screens to display the whole image [1]. It traces the galaxy from its central galactic bulge on the left, where stars are densely packed together, across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outskirts of its outer disc on the right."
Tim
A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions--Confucius
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Thanks for the link Tom. One of the joys of living in Puna is seeing the stars at night when the sky is clear.
My uncle was VP of Lockheed's Space Systems and was involved in everything from Apollo to the Space Shuttle, but he was most proud of being on the team to build the Hubble Space Telescope.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/pr...Hubbl.html
He passed away a couple of months ago, but he's still making us proud.
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this is simple an awesome image!
i'm curious, when looking at the stars at night in Hawaii (and there are lots of them), about what percentage are stars, and about what percentage are actually galaxies?
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SBH - sorry for loss and you should be proud. The Hubble Space Telescope was voted as the "ultimate Lockheed Martin innovation" back in 2013:
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/pr...s-hst.html
You may or may not know that we're currently working with both NASA and Lockheed Martin on orbital debris detection and identification in a "planetary protection" programme.
bluesboy - just about everything you can see in the night sky with the naked eye is a star. There are a couple of bright galaxies you can see in the southern hemisphere but from Hawaii it's Andromeda and a couple of others if conditions are exceptionally dark, clear and you know what you're doing. The other things you can see depending on various things are a handful of planets, the moon of course, meteors and the odd comet and satellite. You can also see the dark dust lanes in our Galaxy on a good night and if you know what you're looking for, the zodiacal light which is sunlight reflecting off dust in the solar system.
