It’s full of stars
Written By:
- Date published:
9:32 am, October 4th, 2009 - 11 comments
Categories: Deep stuff -
Tags: astronomy
Maybe it would be good for my blood pressure to try not to be grumpy about politics on Sundays. So here is a site I found last week which both rekindled my sense of wonder, and re-calibrated my sense of perspective.
The site displays a full 360 degree spherical image of the night sky as seen from Earth (in the centre of the sphere). You can use arrow keys to move your point of view in any direction, and other keys (ALT and SHIFT on a PC?) to zoom in (like the second image above) or out. The spherical image is 800 megapixels in size, and was composed from 1,200 individual images of the night sky taken from various locations. The site covers some background on how it was done. Well worth a look – the closest I’ve seen so far to a total perspective vortex.
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After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...2 weeks ago
- Bill to sanction unlawful occupation of Palestine
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour fully supports greyhound racing ban
The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
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In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...2 weeks ago
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Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...2 weeks ago - Swarbrick calls on Auckland Mayor to end delay of revival of St James Theatre
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...2 weeks ago
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- Internationally-trained doctors jump at chance to boost health workforce
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...3 days ago
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- Vocational education and training decisions support return to regions
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- Government to celebrate Waitangi Day around NZ
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- Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 23 December
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 23 December appeared first on Newsroom. ...14 minutes ago - Govt walks away from infrastructure alliance
The Government’s social housing agency has backed out of a billion-dollar infrastructure alliance that would have built about 6000 new homes in Auckland – less than 18 months after signing a five-year extension.Labour says the decision to rip up the contract and sell off existing state houses could lead to ...14 minutes ago
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Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...23 hours ago
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r0b,
You da man. Awesome.
Oh oops, first link doesn’t work. Bugger
Hi Ev
The link works fine for me. Here it is in plain text:
http://www.sergebrunier.com/gallerie/pleinciel/index-eng.html
or to see the main display itself (without notes etc) see:
http://www.sergebrunier.com/gallerie/pleinciel/360.swf
You may need all the latest flash player updates for it to run in your browser.
Hi r0b,
seems a safety thing in firefox is stopping me seeing it. I’ll work my way around it.
Cheers
Captcha: permitted. LOL.
Nice post r0b.
Cheers Tim, and peace this day eh.
great site, thanks r0b.
if it’s a sense of wonder you’re after you really can’t go past astronomy.
reminds me the opinion that there’s a lot more god in science than there is in most religion.
There aint no God in science for very good reasons.
I dunno ghost, I might agree with sprout, cosmology and religion – it’s an interesting line. Alas – gotta run (again)…
Not ‘god’ perse, but still lots of ‘belief’.
i guess that depends on your conception of god GWW, i think it’s meant from a kind of spinozian pov.
or else the awe that can be experienced from seeing the world from even a solely empirical pov can still rival mysticism if you do it right 😉
And just by coincidence today:
http://herschel.esac.esa.int/FirstParallelModeImages.shtml