Milky Way is above me

 
As above so Below

Night 31.07.2009 Right now, the Milky Way is over my head, thousands of stars are playing out their roles of creation.
Science would like to capture the knowledge of the most extravagant fantasy, which we've ever seen - aren't going to happen.
Last night I stood in wonder beneath a clear night sky, since I do not own a telescope (but is a dream of mine), I use my eyes. I must admit, I can see pretty well without a telescope. As I gazed upwards, my eyes quickly saw the magnificent constellation called 'Cassiopeia' she forms a 'W'.

Hubble - Cassiopeia constellation

Cassiopeia is known from ancient days, like each of the constellation are.
She was queen of Ethiopia and wife to the king Cepheus, together they would have a daughter called Andromeda.
The mythology surrounding Cassiopeia and her daughter Andromeda are numerous in numbers, and shed light upon other constellations. Cassiopeia was known as a woman, who bragged about her own beauty, even stating that she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs of the sea god Poseidon, who were called the Nereids. This one statement from her, made the sea nymphs angry and they sent a fears sea monster 'Cetus' [constellation] after the royal house of Ethiopia. The royal couple was given one way out of this, they had to give their daughter to the beast. Chained to a cliff, Andromeda waited for her fate to take hold of her. Suddenly a giant white horse with enormous wings, leaped towards her, from the clouds. The beautiful horse was Pegasus [constellation] upon Pengasus' back sat the brave Perseus [constellation], and in the neck of time, he rescued her from the beast. Perseus was able to defeat the beast, with the head of Medusas [a star]. In the moment that the beast saw into Medusas' eyes, it was turned into stone. I stood in awe, as my eyes set upon the area of the Supernova 1572 (A).
Look into the Supernova with the Hubble telescope, just click here, and open your mind.

Another post worth reading in regards to this post
http://historyofastrology.blogspot.dk/2010/06/cetus-constellation.html

Comments

  1. Anonymous1:21 PM

    cassiopeia! the great constellation that hosts the double cluster! Its a great view using a telescope!.. so as Andromeda where the closest galaxy to our milky way M31!.. interesting iam into astronomy too! but Iam not interested in the mythology more than photographing it(nebula's,clusters and galaxies)the wonders of the universe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Anonymous,

    It must be incredible to see it, and even more to take pictures of the universe. A 'shoot' of the past/present and future, all in one. Yes Andromeda (the daughter of Cassiopeia) is closer, which also fits the next 'generation level' as the ancient Greeks spoke about. In ancient Greece the constellations/stories were also categorized into ‘generations.’
    That is why I LOVE astronomy and astrology, it is clearly seen; two sides of one coin. I love to look at pictures from space it makes my poetic nature blossom, reach for the unreachable.

    Thank you for your comment,
    Sincerely,
    Karima

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:19 AM

    hey!

    here are my photos of Tuesday night! What's special about it that they were shot at Egypt!!! dark skies!:)) with an 88mm scope:))

    http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/2204/m31m.jpg

    M31 Andromeda galaxy..closest galaxy to us!2mlyrs away.. If you can see the milkyway look at Cassiopeia to your right you will see a small smudge! thats andromeda!

    http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/2204/m31m.jpg


    M45 Pleiads star cluster
    http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/6101/m45shot.jpg
    440 lyrs away
    you would notice the cluster as glittery in the east! but you wouldn't see the sneaky nebulosity...the camera gets this one :))

    last M17 the omega nebula!
    5,000 lyrs away
    http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2377/m17s.jpg

    enjoy!!:))

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Anonymous,

    Off Egypt!? WOW! You make me speechless, such wonders you see.
    Since you have much more knowledge about the sciences behind the equipment, please do tell me what 88 mm scope means? I have a magazine with telescope types that one can buy, and each off course have a ‘range’ like 60 mm and so on, but I have never really figured out what exactly these numbers and the ‘mm’ mean?

    The pictures are remarkable, nothing a human imagination could come up with. All the dots on the pictures (the small and medium sized) are they stars/planets/galaxies or none of the above?
    Thank you so much for pin pointing the location of Andromeda, I will look for it.
    I have actually seen Pleiades star cluster (the seven sisters), one night it was completely clear, I could see and sense the cluster, as you said, it seemed like it was glittering very fare out. The pictures are great, so inspiring.
    The Omega Nebula (M17) is such a beautiful picture, it seems like there is much activity in this area, like a burst of intense matter.

    Thank you so much for sharing this, it was truly something which I enjoyed to see.
    Sincerely,
    Karima

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous1:18 PM

    thanks for your comment:))I'm still new to this field, which is called astro-photography about a year or so.

    An 88mm scope means that the objective(or lens of the telescope in my case its a lens,because I use a refractor or mirror when dealing with different type of telescopes such as the reflector)is measured in terms of its diameter.

    The larger the diameter of the objective the more the light gathering power is and the more you would be able to see.

    another important measurement is in "Inches" where you can find what is the size of the telescopes objective in this measurement. My 88mm is about 3.4 inches.You can use the one your comfortable with whether millimeters or centimeters for the objective no fuss about that hehe..

    another important point is the focal length of the telescope..which is usually measured in millilmeters..so My telescope has an objective of an 88mm and a focal length of 500mm. The shorter the length the more light will travel faster in the tube...and the more larger the field of view..actually here it explains http://www.egypt-telescope.net/learne.html explains more!




    the small dots in the pictures are stars of different classes(meaning different ages in our time) Long ago astronomers found out that they can use a spectroscope to differentiate incoming light the blue,red,,yellow etc... to see the stars chemistry.


    you are right about the omega nebula intense activtiy why!?!? hmm lets see...hint your picture on AUG 01 is the back ground of the omega nebula that is why:))meaning that part of the milkyway was behind the target..If I had use my little camera with smaller lens. and smaller focal length . I would be able to show you the milky way in much greater detail. its in the south region.try goggle M17 and milky way and see the results.or here..you would see more stars when looking at the milky way than in any other direction:))

    http://messier.obspm.fr/more/m017-018-024_more.html


    hmmm I hope I haven't confused you! but I forgot to say that my telescope is for photographic purposes..I don't view the planets or deep sky...usually if you want to observe the universe simply! binoculars is the way thats how I started..then moved to telescopes. portable! move anywhere.....you can watch the constellations... star clusters...some of messier(charles messier French astronomer dude) album...and planets too! like jupiter!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Anonymous,

    No I thank you! :)

    Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge around the lens and the “Inches”
    I will probably understand it one day, when I am using such a magnificent thingy :) myself, I believe that I might understand it completely, when in practice. And thank you for the link, which will help me a lot.

    It is incredible how many different stars classes there probably are, and so much still unknown, and it will probably stay unknown for thousands of years.
    The picture you were hinting too from the 1 of august is not mine, but from wikipedia, I just wanted to show what I was looking at. I had it in a different angle than on the picture. But I do know that the Milky Way is a pattern of many thousands of stars, to put it in different words, I am not new to the concepts if our milky way. But thank you, it is a magnificent sight.

    Nope you haven’t confused me at all :) Yes I would like one day to see the details upon the planets, their outermost atmosphere creating storms and intense weather. To be able to zoom in on distant stars.
    Again I envy your Photographic telescope! Actually I did not know that there was such a ‘scope.

    I truly hope you have a lovely night where all the stars reveal themselves to you.

    Sincerely,
    Karima

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear
    grafiskais dizains,

    Yes I completely agree :)

    Sincerely,
    Karima - WB

    ReplyDelete
  8. hello great blog thanks for share i like
    regard
    http://www.rohfun.com/blog/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Rohfun All in One Page Office Site,

    Thank you very much. I hope you have a wonderful day,

    Best regards,
    Karima - WindBlowerTM

    ReplyDelete
  10. That'd be so nice to see it directly with our own eyes. It should be a very memorable moment, right? I want to experience it firsthand too :)

    ReplyDelete

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