Olber's Paradox revisited.

CnoteChris started a recent thread about the blackness of space:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=30178

Cecil had already answered the question (it’s a classic):
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_174.html

But last week I was outside with my old Brownie Box camera and I accidentally pushed the shutter release while the camera was pointing up. When I got the roll back from Wal-Mart, I was surprised to see the picture and I thought I’d post it for the ‘not enough stars’ side of the debate.

http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/2mass_msx_gcatlas.jpg

Oh wow. Very, very, impressive.

I clicked the link.

I’ll let you know what I think of it when the picture’s done loading, which I expect sometime tomorrow.

I know what you mean Cabbage. I am on a T1 line and it is still loading about 5 minutes later.

HUGS!
Sqrl

Where in the HECK did you take that picture? It couldn’t have been in a town! I can barely see the haze at night, much less a smattering of stars.

If you did take that in a town, I’m amazed. :smiley: Not doubting you here, just shocked that you could get that good a pic with a camera without a telescope.

oh, and it only took me a minute to load it on my ADSL.

The picture just finished loading on this T1 line pc. It is nice but not worth the time.

HUGS!
Sqrl

I guess you didn’t wait for the image to load all the way, or you would have seen the part that said:

“Brownie box camera” - yeah right :stuck_out_tongue:

Or just look at the URL for the image… Or just realize that you can’t take anything that tc_burnett says at face value. By the way, 2 microns is in the infrared, so you wouldn’t be able to see most of those stars with your own eyes, anyway.

Like Wal-Mart is going to develop film from a brownie box camera. 10Mb JPG – did they put that on a Kodak photo CD for you?