Star Wars Comes Alive: Time Lapse Video of the Night Sky Over Hawaii

Laser-tracking the Milky Way over 13,803 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island. Lasers allow the adaptive optics of the radio telescopes to remove the blurring effect of the earth's atmosphere. And they look really cool. And they make me wonder. Light years from now will someone on a distant planet be tracking these lasers as they arrive from the long-vanished Earth?

The End Of Life As We Know It

I picked up some interesting news over on EarthSky awhile ago.

Astronomers believe that the Milky Way galaxy is on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy. It might look something like this, with the Andromeda galaxy on the left.

Wow. The prediction is that a collision will occur in approximately 3.75 billion years.

Reminds me of an old joke.

So don't worry. It's 3.75 billion, not million.

To Infinity--and Beyond

I've been keeping my eye on the night sky. I'm grateful that we live in a universe of light, and that light waves are not bounded by the division between night and day. And I find that a few minutes of gazing at the night sky definitely keeps things in proper perspective.

The Big Dipper continues to dominate the northern skyline, but it hangs lower and lower now.

And now it has been joined by the other giant constellation, Orion. A few weeks ago the Hunter was just showing his head and shoulders in the eastern sky, but now he strides in full view where he will remain throughout the winter.

A few weeks ago I took a shot of the Milky Way straight overhead. I was amazed and delighted to discover what happened when I elevated the exposure. Buzz Lightyear has it right: "To infinity--and beyond!"