Our home planet as it looks from Mars @ 127 million miles away.

[Alobar]

For you stargazers and amateur astronomers or just those curious about the rest of the universe, I found this photo taken from the NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter very compelling. I sometimes drag out my telescope and look at other planets and their moons and often wonder how our world would look from millions of miles distant.

Here the moon happens to be nearly behind the earth, and in fact the distance to the moon is about 30 earth diameters. See how Australia is easily recognized! Other things I noticed is how sharp the light/shadow line in on the moon and blurry on the earth, no doubt seeing twilight due to an atmosphere on earth and none on the moon. Cloud cover too is easily seen as well as snow on Antarctica. This photo (taken Nov 20 2016) clearly shows the south pole bathed in sunlight, obviously this picture would look much different in mid summer when the north is bathed in sunshine.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p...campaign=NASAJPL&utm_content=weekly20170109-5

 

[sKiZo]

... maybe YOUR home planet ... <G>

Here's the Earth as seen from Pluto, significantly enhanced ... amazing the difference a few billion miles can make in your perspective ...

BTW ... that red arrow looks to be on a collision course ... betcha that will leave a mark!

 

[tyeeslayer]

Very cool

 

[Dave_1962]

Wow. It is amazing what mankind can do! Cool post_

 

[dyche01]

Reminds me of one of my favorite Carl Sagan quotes:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

 

[Alobar]

Reminds me of one of my favorite Carl Sagan quotes:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

And not to mention every life form known to exist in the big U! Somehow I think it is crazy not to believe that there is more out there..

 

[Sam Cogley]

For you stargazers and amateur astronomers or just those curious about the rest of the universe, I found this photo taken from the NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter very compelling. I sometimes drag out my telescope and look at other planets and their moons and often wonder how our world would look from millions of miles distant.

Here the moon happens to be nearly behind the earth, and in fact the distance to the moon is about 30 earth diameters. See how Australia is easily recognized! Other things I noticed is how sharp the light/shadow line in on the moon and blurry on the earth, no doubt seeing twilight due to an atmosphere on earth and none on the moon. Cloud cover too is easily seen as well as snow on Antarctica. This photo (taken Nov 20 2016) clearly shows the south pole bathed in sunlight, obviously this picture would look much different in mid summer when the north is bathed in sunshine.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p...campaign=NASAJPL&utm_content=weekly20170109-5

What's the magnification on that photo?

 

[sKiZo]

I sometimes drag out my telescope and look at other planets and their moons and often wonder how our world would look from millions of miles distant.

Hey, I can see your telescope from here! <G>

 

[dyche01]

Ooh! Nice 'scope.

Is that a Z10?

 

[Alobar]

What's the magnification on that photo?

That is a good question, I would like to know too..

 

[sKiZo]

Ooh! Nice 'scope.

Is that a Z10?

It's a Z8 with a bunch of mods. As you can see in the pic, I'm up here in cold country, so I flocked and insulated the tube, and upgraded the heaters and fan on the mirror. I also added a setting circle and level to the base with adjustable legs. A Telrad sight is almost a must for a Dobsonian, and a Wixey inclination gauge takes the guesswork out of finding targets. That's mounted on a slide to aid in balancing the tube ...

... but I digress ...
(I do that a lot) <G>

 

[Alobar]

A very interesting thread. I was following, with great interest, the New Horizons Project. That is one interesting subject as is the video of the rover on Mars...

It is all pretty damned incredible and I have been wowed by space exploration for the past 50 years! If we never get astronauts out of earth orbit we still are out there in many places right now.

 

[Alobar]

Remember the voyagers in the 70's? They still communicate home once in a while and they are way out there, heading into deep space. 20.5 billion KM from the sun!
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/index.html
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

 

[Johnny 007]

Remember the voyagers in the 70's? They still communicate home once in a while and they are way out there, heading into deep space. 20.5 billion KM from the sun!
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/index.html
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

They were launched in the late 70s and they just recently left the solar system and entered interstellar space. Imagine that. At that rate, it'll take them thousands and thousands of years to get to the nearest star system.

If I ever live away from all the light pollution, I think I'll get a telescope, just for fun. I remember one time driving across west Texas, out in the middle of nowhere. It was a clear night, and I pulled off the road, opened the sunroof, and just sat there for a while. More stars than I had ever seen.

 

[sKiZo]

Actually did some QC work on the Pioneers ... Makes the fact that they were still doing their thing 30 years after launch even more amazing, as a lot of us were pretty stoned a lot of the time ...

Concentrate ... concentrate ... oh wow ... did you see that? I didn't know fingers could DO that ... ;-}

If I ever live away from all the light pollution, I think I'll get a telescope, just for fun. I remember one time driving across west Texas, out in the middle of nowhere. It was a clear night, and I pulled off the road, opened the sunroof, and just sat there for a while. More stars than I had ever seen.

Yup ... middle of nowhere is the place to be for that sort of thing. Even the naked Eyeball Mark One can see a lot. I remember out camping in a river canyon when the ISS made an overflight, and I swear you could see the bumper stickers on that bad boy. Of course, we were pretty stoned at the time ...

 

[Alobar]

No light pollution here, but overcast is often an issue. Still on those clear nights it is tough to go inside!

 

[blhagstrom]

If I ever live away from all the light pollution, I think I'll get a telescope, just for fun. I remember one time driving across west Texas, out in the middle of nowhere. It was a clear night, and I pulled off the road, opened the sunroof, and just sat there for a while. More stars than I had ever seen.

One great thing about having a home out in the middle of nowhere ND.
On a clear night, you can look up and see about 1/2 of everything.
It's daunting.