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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: redrider90 on March 31, 2015, 07:25:58 PM

Title: What's it like alone on the far side of the moon
Post by: redrider90 on March 31, 2015, 07:25:58 PM

I was reading this article in the BBC http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130401-the-loneliest-human-being   about the astronaut Al Worden  and his experience of what it was like to be in the command module by himself orbiting the moon.
This quote just knocked me over especially about looking out at the universe. There was so much light that he could not make out individual stars.

"You were a quarter of a million miles away from home though.

Yes, you’re a long way away but the thing that most impressed me about being in lunar orbit – particularly the times when I was by myself – was that every time I came round the backside of the Moon, I got to a window where I could watch the Earthrise and that was phenomenal. And in addition to that, I got to look at the universe out there with a very different perspective and a very different way than anyone had before.

What I found was that the number of stars was just so immense. In fact I couldn’t pick up individual stars, it was like a sheet of light. I found that fascinating because it changed my ideas about how we think about the Universe".

Title: Re: What's it like alone on the far side of the moon
Post by: Lannis on March 31, 2015, 07:39:05 PM

One of the things that makes me question my own perceptions and my own abilities to estimate and to assume what's reasonable and what's not ...

... is estimating the number of stars you can see on a bright clear night, say in Montana.

If someone asked me to guess, I'd say I was looking at hundreds of thousands of stars with my naked eye.   In fact, on an average night, at any given time, I can see 4,000 stars or less, depending on whether I can see 6.0 magnitude stars.

Just a few thousand?   Doesn't seem right.

What a sight it must have been from the back of the moon, no atmosphere, no scattered light .....

Lannis

Title: Re: What's it like alone on the far side of the moon
Post by: Sasquatch Jim on March 31, 2015, 07:45:57 PM

 It's like this,

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh6vqhOUX8Q

Title: Re: What's it like alone on the far side of the moon
Post by: lucydad on March 31, 2015, 07:55:51 PM

A word I rarely use...awesome...min d blowing

Title: Re: What's it like alone on the far side of the moon
Post by: Penderic on March 31, 2015, 07:59:26 PM

Re: Stars filling the sky  - Gigapixels of Andromeda [4K]

Amazing details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAL48P5NJU
(but wait! theres more!)