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December 17, 2015

Milky Way

If every star in the Milky Way was a grain of salt, they would fill an Olympic sized swimming pool.

(Click graphic for larger view - it's beautiful)


2 comments:

sharintexas said...

That is beautiful. It may not be the entire Milky Way but on a clear night the display of stars in the Texas Panhandle are very beautiful to see as well. I will never forget being on the way to Mother and Dad's for Christmas late at night when we stopped in one of those really small towns along the way for a break. My granddaughter Kayla was 4-5 years old at that time and had been asleep in the back seat. I was getting her out of the car so she could go in with us for a bathroom break and even though she was still half asleep she looked up at the sky and said "Wow!" She had lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area most of her life and so had never experienced the night sky in all it's beauty due to the amount of light in the area. It made me take another look and stop and appreciate seeing something I had always taken for granted through a child's eyes. She is 22 years old now but I still think about this memory when I think about the stars and the look of wonder in her eyes.

Mike said...

Cool story! I haven't done it in yrs. but used to drive out about halfway to the home place and sit in that "triangle" right-of-way to watch the meteors. It was far enough from Pampa to get out of the "light pollution".

I used to argue a little with Julie's roommate Paula when she said the stars were more easily seen in Arizona than here. I don't doubt they would be in the desert, but she lived in Tempe, very close to Phoenix. I just think she was giving more credit to the area for being "dark" than it deserved. I dunno, 'cause I've never been there, but it doesn't make sense for an area of 1.5 million and the lights with that hugely populated area would make for a clearer view than here.

I went over there once and looked up before knocking on the door and saw several rings around the moon and I told them to come outside and see. Paula said she had seen that in Arizona, but it wasn't just two rings close together around the moon, but one that went nearly to the horizon, absolutely amazing, never seen it before or since then.