(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Some Beautiful Fireworks! The Really Silent Kind... [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-07-04 We’ll not be among those terrifying dogs or sparking wildfires tonight. We’re after the real fireworks. Yes, we’ll need to contend with the (barely) waning gibbous moon, the occasional Starlink satellite train, and the very faint lights from Denver/Colorado Springs/Ft. Collins in the distant east. At least we’re far enough west to escape the wildfire smoke, for now. We’ve been out here since the new moon and have been blessed with some spectacular night skies. It’s sad that these sights are becoming so rare. In some recent travels, we met a young couple from Las Vegas, who were excited to see Venus for the first time. Venus is brightest night sky object besides the moon. We were happy to point out a couple of sights in the sky to them, but it was a sad commentary on the light pollution in some of our major cities. Light pollution control needs to be a serious part of our future, or this problem will only get worse. We could all learn a bit from Flagstaff, where they have worked hard to control the city’s impact on Lowell observatory. The M57 nebula you see above is a shell of gas expelled by the star faintly visible in the center. It was a massive celestial event. M104 M104, the Sombrero Galaxy, is an old favorite. The prominent dust lanes make it quite distinctive. It is pretty easy to locate on a dark night, and the kids love it. One of our favorite pastimes is to treat our grandchildren to some time with the telescope. Planetary observations in the city, deep sky objects out here. We took these with a relatively new electronic telescope with a 4 inch mirror. That is not a very large scope, but it does well in these skies. Software stacks the images to average out the light gathered, greatly enhancing the detail. Electronic telescopes are becoming more advanced and less expensive, and there are several options on the market. They also take some of the complexity and time out of the setup process. I’ve never minded taking an hour to get the scope together and aligned, but guests may grow bored and want to see results right away. Andromeda, Our Close Neighbor This is a quick look at the constellation Andromeda. This one you can see with your naked eye in a dark sky. It is absolutely huge, being a close neighbor. With a little time invested, we could have imaged this in much more detail...but there was so much to look at. Please grant yourself some time to get to a dark sky area and take a look at what you may be missing. If you are in a large city, it may take a couple of hours to get where you need to be. Bring a telescope if you have one, but even looking around with your own eyes can be just as impressive, and even overwhelming. In the dark of the moon the Milky Way absolutely dominates the sky, edge to edge. And I bet most people have never had the opportunity to experience this sight. You can see fireworks anytime. The night sky is a lot more peaceful. Where else can you glance back billions of years in just a few minutes? Cheers. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/4/2179338/-Some-Beautiful-Fireworks-The-Really-Silent-Kind Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/