As you know, our little blue planet is part of the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way, in turn, is part of the Local Group, which includes two other major galaxies: Andromeda and Triangulum. A group is a collection of galaxies that are close enough to be gravitationally attracted, which means that in a few billion years we're going to collide with our partners.
What happens then? Nobody knows, really, We might merge into a single giant galaxy, or we might just pass close enough to shear off lots of stars from each other. Check back in the year 4000002023 and I'll let you know.
I mention this, of course, because I was out in the desert on Sunday night and one of my targets was the Triangulum Galaxy. I used a broadband filter for the first time, which is basically a fancy light pollution filter, and it worked pretty well. The filter improved the contrast and made the background sky darker than usual, which in turn made post-processing easier. I also tried to address the severe noise I got last month from my narrowband filter by taking some advice and dithering my images. I'll spare you the explanation, but I've tried dithering before and haven't noticed much difference, so this time I amped it up and it did cut down significantly on the noise.
Anyway, here's the Local Group. The Triangulum Galaxy is at the top. Andromeda is in the middle. The Milky Way is at the bottom.
It looks like somebody called a P.R. person in Andromeda and said, "You guys need to clean up your image; you're always looking kinda disheveled." Apparently it worked, cause Andromeda really got their cosmetics in order!
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Isn't it ironic how words like "local" take on a degree of meaning, highly dependent on context?
To me, "local" means here in the Shenandoah Valley. Other parts of Virginia are "widespread," and states like Florida, Maine, and California are "distant." I always knew that "local" could, in some conversations, cover all of the USA. But it never occurred to me until now that "local" might mean all the stars in the Milky Way PLUS all the stars in some other galaxies! That "local" covers quite a few light-years.
I suppose a reasonable question would be, "How far away do you have to be to be considered "distant?"
"I suppose a reasonable question would be, "How far away do you have to be to be considered "distant?""
Farther than Andromeda.
We are more strongly bonded to the Andromeda galaxy than we are to earth.
https://www.science20.com/hammock_physicist/you_andromeda_and_largest_structure_universe-100856
Lovely.
Impressive photos.
I wonder what our skies would look like if we were more toward the middle of the Milky Way, rather than on the end of one of its outward arms.
I think more stars, more detail in the dust clouds, would be visible even to our naked eyes...maybe even during the day. But would that make more distant viewing difficult to impossible, even through telescopes? Like trying to see a distant shore through fog and rain?
Or would we see just as much as we do from where we are? I've heard that the crowded appearance of the Milky Way is an artifact of angle and distance. Astronomically, things are really far away from one another; the closer you get to, say, a nebula, the more diaphanous it appears.
What does the Milky Way look like from the vantage point of the Horsehead Nebula?
Love your photos Kevin. Great work.
Fantastic photos. Thanks!