# The Milky Way from last night **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 9, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391 "2015-08-09T17:48:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/21 "2015-08-10T01:04:49Z")
Awesome pic, and thanks for the camera settings info. [Recent Scott Kelly Twitter pic](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLjjYWBUAAE5gaJ.jpg:large) from the ISS aimed in my general direction. I live in that great blazing blob at the off center and that landmass is barely 100x35 miles. Add persisten haze for a long part of the year and it’s a wonder we can see anything up. > [@beowulff](#): > > It’s a sad fact that even in the great, wide-open West, it’s very, very hard to find a location without significant sky glow. Even national parks like Zion have skyglow at the horizon due to the surrounding towns. I want to take a trip to Monument Valley with the express purpose of taking some Milky Way photos - I’m using a cool open-source program called Stellarium to determine what time of year will be best (when the Milky Way is in the best location, and the Moon isn’t up). I’m hoping it will be pretty dark, but there are a number of small towns surrounding the park. Back in July was at Bryce Canyon NP, a couple of hours further NE from Zion, nearest towns are quite small and in some parts of the park masked by being over the other side of ridges. Did their Astronomy Night program, quite an impressive Dark Sky (and 8000’+ elevations… do not try running up 2 floors of stairs on your first day there if you’re an old sea-leveler). ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/22 "2015-08-10T02:35:37Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Awesome pic, and thanks for the camera settings info. > > [Recent Scott Kelly Twitter pic](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLjjYWBUAAE5gaJ.jpg:large) from the ISS aimed in my general direction. I live in that great blazing blob at the off center and that landmass is barely 100x35 miles. Add persisten haze for a long part of the year and it’s a wonder we can see anything up. > > Back in July was at Bryce Canyon NP, a couple of hours further NE from Zion, nearest towns are quite small and in some parts of the park masked by being over the other side of ridges. Did their Astronomy Night program, quite an impressive Dark Sky (and 8000’+ elevations… do not try running up 2 floors of stairs on your first day there if you’re an old sea-leveler). My wife and I went on a two-week road trip to Yellowstone last month, stopping at Bryce, Zion and Cedar Breaks. It was my plan to take some Milky Way photos at Bryce and Yellowstone, but it was cloudy **Every. Single. Night.** Finally, on the penultimate night of the trip, I was able to take a decent shot at Springdale (just outside of the entrance to Zion). It was that photo that prompted me to buy the new camera body and lens (I had a D90 before the D7200). I’ll post that photo if there’s any interest. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/23 "2015-08-10T02:39:55Z")
Can I save this and use it as my phone wallpaper? It’s beautiful ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/24 "2015-08-10T02:43:44Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > Can I save this and use it as my phone wallpaper? It’s beautiful I would be honored. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/25 "2015-08-10T20:45:42Z")
I guess my link got broken. I re-posted on Flickr: [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/562/19844834524_f12427d42e_b.jpg "DSC\_0270\_small") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/11822576@N08/19844834524) ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/26 "2015-08-10T21:22:24Z")
Beautiful picture! > [@beowulff](#): > > It’s a sad fact that even in the great, wide-open West, it’s very, very hard to find a location without significant sky glow. Even national parks like Zion have skyglow at the horizon due to the surrounding towns. I want to take a trip to Monument Valley with the express purpose of taking some Milky Way photos The most amazing starry sky I’ve ever seen was out in the desert on the Navajo reservation in western NM. We were driving someone home to their hogan late at night and it was way the heck out in the middle of nowhere, many miles away from any paved roads or small towns and at least 40 miles from the nearest ‘big’ city (Gallup). I’ve seen many beautiful starry skies from rural places here in Texas, but this was just jaw-dropping. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/27 "2015-08-12T14:19:16Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > [Here](http://www.sierranaturenotes.com/naturenotes/NALightPollution.htm) is a map of artificial sky brightness from 1950 through the projection to 2025. The current brightness map as of 2010 (not shown here but can be found in Nordgren’s book) is about right in the middle of between the 1997 data and 2025 prediction. Western and Central Europe is even worse; the only decent places to do astronomy are in Ireland and some inland parts of Spain. > Stranger Light pollution out in the countryside here in Ireland is pretty bad in a lot of places but there has been an effort in recent times to make our skies darker, so you have things like [Kerry Dark-Sky Reserve.](http://kerrydarksky.com/about-the-reserve/) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/28 "2015-08-12T14:40:00Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > … > [Here’s](http://darksitefinder.com/maps.html) how I choose a location. Great picture. Using your location finder I was surprised to see that my location is a yellow-green hue. I thought I’d be much darker, but I don’t see anywhere near the detail that your picture shows. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/29 "2015-08-12T14:48:25Z")
The best Milky Way I’ve seen was from the summit of Haleakala on Maui. Just after sunset, this gorgeous “cloud” appeared across the sky, and most people began taking pictures (this was years before smart phones). One woman’s flash kept going off, and I asked her why she was using a flash for the Milky Way. She answered me as if it were self-evident: “To make the stars brighter, of course.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/30 "2015-08-12T15:15:09Z")
People are idiots when it comes to flash photography, as you can witness at any stadium sporting event. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/31 "2015-08-12T15:24:21Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > People are idiots when it comes to flash photography, as you can witness at any stadium sporting event. I’ve gotten into an argument with someone who was taking flash photos at a _movie_! ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/32 "2015-08-12T15:27:56Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > People are idiots when it comes to flash photography, as you can witness at any stadium sporting event. Looks way cooler\* than waving lighters though. - When they all go off en masse. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/33 "2015-08-12T15:38:48Z")
I can’t see it for the cloud. Specifically, this one: "CloudApp Sorry, no drops live here. Perhaps the link you clicked was broken or the owner of this drop has deleted it." ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/34 "2015-08-12T15:44:46Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > I can’t see it for the cloud. Specifically, this one: > "CloudApp > Sorry, no drops live here. > > Perhaps the link you clicked was broken or the owner of this drop has deleted it." Yeah, I must have exceeded my bandwidth, and they deleted it. I re-posted it here: [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/562/19844834524_f12427d42e_b.jpg "DSC\_0270\_small") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/11822576@N08/19844834524) ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/35 "2015-08-12T16:09:46Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > People are idiots when it comes to flash photography, as you can witness at any stadium sporting event. I was at a concert a few weeks back with a friend, who insisted on snapping a few pics with his Android phone. We were, at minimum 60 feet from the stage. Yep, he had his flash on. I let him know that more than 15 or 20 feet from stage his flash was useless. Nope, he insisted that he needed it. Never did see how those pics turned out. I’m sure they were great!! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/36 "2015-08-12T17:10:47Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Beautiful picture! > > The most amazing starry sky I’ve ever seen was out in the desert on the Navajo reservation in western NM. We were driving someone home to their hogan late at night and it was way the heck out in the middle of nowhere, many miles away from any paved roads or small towns and at least 40 miles from the nearest ‘big’ city (Gallup). I’ve seen many beautiful starry skies from rural places here in Texas, but this was just jaw-dropping. I did that a few times as well. Middle of nowhere NM, Middle of nowhere Texas Panhandle, Middle of nowhere West Texas. You really have to be quite far away from any large city, town, industrial complex (oilfields, etc…) to get the best effect. That glow from over the horizon still affects the view, even if the sky above is very dark. So, you had a find an area that was far enough away that even the over the horizon glow was over the horizon. Not so easy now, but this used to be (1980s) my way of finding a dark sky site that felt truly prehistoric to me: Drive away from a city/town, take a small hwy off of the major one you’re on and drive and drive, take a road off of that smaller hwy, drive, drive, drive, find a nice spot preferably in a little bit of a valley, ck for any signs of nearby habitation, make sure you are reasonably safe (bears, weirdos, packs of wild missionaries), wait for full dark,… :::ahhh…::: Then, try to survive the rest of the night. :eek: Don’t get me wrong, OP, I love your image. It is truly beautiful. 🆒 I was just commenting on Tangent’s comment about dark sky vs DARK sky. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/37 "2015-08-12T17:18:55Z")
I spent some time hiking and camping in SW Colorado, too. Never could seem to find a really, really DARK sky in those mountains and mountain valleys. I couldn’t tell if it was those small mountain towns having terrible light pollution or if the snow pack from the mountain peaks was reflecting starlight or re-reflecting city glows or something. Still found some nice places, but not NM dark. . ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/38 "2015-08-12T18:54:39Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I’ve gotten into an argument with someone who was taking flash photos at a _movie_! I’m having a flash myself right now, of déjà vu. I think we’ve traded stories before when I mentioned people taking pictures of a lunar eclipse with the flash on. Yeah, that light is going to bounce off the moon and return to your camera before the shutter closes. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/39 "2015-08-12T21:33:28Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I’m having a flash myself right now, of déjà vu. I think we’ve traded stories before when I mentioned people taking pictures of a lunar eclipse with the flash on. > > Yeah, that light is going to bounce off the moon and return to your camera before the shutter closes. :smack: Well, my T-80 has slow shutter synch I’ll have you know. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391/40 "2015-08-12T21:46:03Z")
> [@leftfield6](#): > > Never did see how those pics turned out. I’m sure they were great!! They won’t be great, but they might not be bad. Cameras are pretty good these days, and the average Joe’s tolerance for crap is so high, that he might consider what he got to be a “great” photo. And I’ll bet all those people at NASCAR races taking flash pictures can’t tell that their flash isn’t doing anything. As for the person taking a flash picture of a movie, well, I hope she realized that she really was stupid when she sees her nice picture of a white screen! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-milky-way-from-last-night/727391.md?page=3)