Since the last two days’ posts have been about the Galactic Center, I also wanted to include some information excerpted from the following web site; namely, that the Galactic Center is not only in the astrological sign of Sagittarius, but that it is “referred to by scientists as Sagittarius A.”
Situated in Sagittarius(of both the sidereal and tropical zodiacs), the Galactic center is postulated by scientists to be a massive black hole the size of a large star and with the density of several million suns. Its luminous, compact, and star-forming center is referred to by scientists as Sagittarius A and is a powerful source of radio waves. The galactic center is best viewed in the southern hemisphere.
sagittarius and the galactic center
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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You are going to love this!
It is another link from my “2012, Edgar Cayce and the Maya” PowerPoint Presentation, as promised to the people in British Columbia who attended my seminar May 28th and June 4th. We were unable to connect to the internet at the event location, so here it is.
This time-lapse video was taken at the 2009 Texas Star Party on the night of April 21st and 22nd by William L. Castleman. The flashing red lights at the bottom right and left of the video are the red flashlights and red equipment lights necessary for maintaining night vision while viewing the stars. If regular white lights were used, a night sky phenomenon as dim as the Milky Way would not be visible to the naked eye.
Time lapse video of night sky as it passes over the 2009 Texas Star Party in Fort Davis, Texas. The galactic core of Milky Way is brightly displayed. Images taken with 15mm fisheye lens.
Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party on Vimeo
The video may take a little while to get started. At first, the screen will be totally black. Be patient. It’s worth it!
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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Here is a link to a magnificent photograph taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of the Milky Way’s Galactic Center. Because of dust clouds that hide the light of the stars in the Galactic Center, infrared photography was used, melding over 2,000 photographic images into this one amazing photograph.
Images of the Galactic Center are especially appropriate at this time because of the anticipated line up of the Sun and Earth with the Galactic Center on the Winter Solstice around December 21, 2012.
Just click on the link below the excerpt from the NASA web site:
Explanation: What’s happening at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy? To help find out, the orbiting Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have combined their efforts to survey the region in unprecedented detail in infrared light. Infrared light is particularly useful for probing the Milky Way’s center because visible light is more greatly obscured by dust. The above image encompasses over 2,000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope‘s NICMOS taken last year. The image spans 300 by 115 light years with such high resolution that structures only 20 times the size of our own Solar System are discernable.
APOD: 2009 January 7 – The Galactic Core in Infrared
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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These were the last two days of the Winter Star Party. Knowing how pragmatic my amateur astronomer friends are, I decided to wait until the last two days to interview people about 2012. That way, they would have had time to get to know me during the first part of the week and be comfortable with me. I surmised that if I started the week with questions about 2012, the end of the world, spiritual awakening, and a projected alignment of the earth and sun with the galactic center,they would have considered me to be pretty weird.
I was right. Even with my careful planning, I received numerous good natured reassessments of my character. They now know who I am. Nonetheless, a number of friends agreed to be interviewed on camera and have allowed me to include them in my 2012 movie.
After a number of hours of star gazing – it was a beautiful clear sky full of glowing nebulae, galaxies, and globular clusters – I went to bed content and satisfied that I had accomplished all that I had meant to do at the Winter Star Party.
As I drifted off to sleep, I instructed that part of my brain that wakes me up to take photographs that I already had two adequate images of Sagittarius and Scorpius with the Galactic Center sandwiched between them. And, I preferred that I NOT, I repeat NOT, want to be awakened at 5 AM (when these two constellations are enough above the horizon for picture taking) UNLESS, and I repeat UNLESS, the sky was absolutely perfect, and I mean PERFECT, which meant absolutely NO haze at the horizon where these two constellations sit this time of year.
Since a bank of clouds had begun to obscure the stars at around 11 PM because of a cold front descending into the Florida keys from the north, I felt pretty secure that I would be able to get a full night’s sleep for the first time since the beginning of the Winter Star Party. Days of clear skies have led to a serious lack of sleep.
However, you can imagine my consternation when my eyes popped open at 5 AM on the button! I argued with that part of me that wakes me up to take photographs that this was likely a mistake and the sky couldn’t possibly be that good. I listened for muted voices around the telescopes. If I can hear people talking outside my cabin, I know the sky is good enough that they are awake viewing. I heard nothing!
Content, I drifted off to sleep until I woke up abruptly at 5:27 AM. Still no voices! But, I could not drift back to sleep. So, just to prove to myself that there was no reason to wake up and take photographs, I felt around for my red flashlight, turned it on, located my socks and shoes, put them on, and stumbled out into the darkness.
Immediately, I saw a moving dark form – one of my friends. By the way the man moved, I surmised it to be Dan, the fellow who taught me where to find the Galactic Center.
“Is that you, Carol?” he asked in a hushed tone so as not to wake up our friends sleeping in cabins and tents around us.
“Hi Dan,” I said.
“Thank God you’re up,” he said, “Sagittarius and Scorpius are fantastic – the best they’ve been this week! No haze at the horizon either! They’re already over the treetops!”
I grabbed my gear, attached my camera to its tripod using the red light from my flashlight, and took 60 second exposures of one of the most magnificent areas of the sky – the warm glow that marks the magnificent Giant Black Hole at the center of the Milky Way.
I kept holding the shutter down until the rising sun lit the sky so bright that I could no longer see the stars.
How does that part of me that wakes me up to take photographs know these things!!!!
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After my great success making a digital photograph of the galactic center yesterday morning, I awoke this morning at 2:30 AM full of enthusiasm for making a videotape of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The galactic center is the place with which the earth will be lined up on the winter solstice, December 21, 2012. Many people believe this momentous event will herald great changes on earth.
Therefore, I wanted to photograph the galactic center which happens to be in the constellation of Sagittarius close to Scorpio. And I did.
However, when I woke up this morning and tried to take a videotape of the center of the Milky Way, I was not successful at all. As one of my amateur astronomer friends explained to me today, since the video camera shutter operates at 1/30th of a second, it is simply too fast to capture the night sky.
Yesterday, I had called my camera manufacturer and asked one of their technicians how to set the camcorder so it would videotape star constellations. The technician said it could NOT be done. I had to try anyway. I set the camcorder on “night” and gave it a try. As I said, it did not work. Now I know.
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I am so happy because last night – actually between 4 and 5 AM – I finally got a photograph of the galactic center. It is so cool!!!
You can see Sagittarius and the tail of Scorpio right beside it. And, there, glowing quietly, the galactic center.
The problem has been clouds and haze. I’ve woken up four mornings, crept around in the dark to the “berm” where you can see the whole sky . . . and have only seen haze covering the stars.
This morning, the big problem, even though the stars were visible to the horizon, was wind. I feared that with such long exposures – over 30 seconds – I would only get blurry light spots. However, I held tightly to my tripod so it would not quiver in the gusts. The result? I have at least one photograph that beautifully shows the constellations and the center of the Milky Way!
Yay!
On December 21, 2012, the earth and sun will line up with the galactic center. Some think this will create momentous events on earth. We shall see!
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My brother has called my husband Mr. Gadget. I can see why. During this trip to the 25th Annual Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys, I am, for the first time, writing on my laptop and, at the same time, connected to the internet.
I’m using a broadband cellular modem. It is mine so I guess I’m a bit of a Mrs. Gadget.
However, here’s the part about Mr. Gadget. It wasn’t enough for John to use the laptop on battery. He needed to charge its battery as we went along with this gadget he bought at a Roger Wilco truck stop service center. It’s called (and I quote) “It’s a 200 watt power inverter that takes 12 volts DC from the car’s electrical system through the cigarette lighter and provides 120 volts 60 HZ AC. So, it’s like being plugged in! And, it runs cool as a cucumber. It’s got a fan in it. The inverter sits in the drink holder so it remains in a fixed position when you have lateral G forces induced by cornering and longitudinal G forces from braking or acceleration.”
John wanted me to use the laptop while we drove along as an experiment to see if we would have any interruption in internet service as we cruised past cell phone towers. I am happy to report that we seem to be having NO trouble seamlessly receiving signals from one cell phone tower after another as we go barreling down Florida’s I95 toward the Florida Keys.
As I said yesterday, we’re taking our yearly 1000 plus mile trek to the Keys to attend the 25th annual Winter Star Party hosted by the Southern Cross Astronomical Society. I hope to interview people specifically on the Milky Way’s galactic center and its association, if any, with the last day of the Mayan Long Count Calendar on December 21, 2012.
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