Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
June 3, 2021 5:55 PM   Subscribe

The 2021 Milky Way Photographer of the Year "...we’ve gathered the best Milky Way images taken around the world....Buckle up because this trip is going to take you from the remote deserts of the American Wild West to the unfamiliar landscapes of the Australian Outback, passing by spectacular glaciers, volcanoes, mountains, beaches…always with the Milky Way shining in the sky."
posted by Lyme Drop (22 comments total) 46 users marked this as a favorite
 
Heartbreakingly gorgeous — thank you. I am trying to remember the last time I saw the galaxy with my own eyes. It's been years. Too long.
posted by Celsius1414 at 6:11 PM on June 3, 2021 [3 favorites]


OK, bonus points for using a Yes lyric.
posted by Relay at 6:20 PM on June 3, 2021 [19 favorites]


So basically we live in a science fiction book cover, but we don't see it because we live too fast.
posted by zompist at 6:21 PM on June 3, 2021 [9 favorites]


More like live too brightly
posted by skyscraper at 6:26 PM on June 3, 2021 [6 favorites]


Wow.
posted by darkstar at 6:32 PM on June 3, 2021


My favorite use of taxpayer dollars was when I went on a ranger-led stargazing talk at the Grand Canyon. After a few minutes of our eyes adjusting we could see the Milky Way. Neat!
posted by mostly vowels at 7:09 PM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]


OK, bonus points for using a Yes lyric.

We would have also accepted "Lost in the city"
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:15 PM on June 3, 2021 [2 favorites]


Buckle up indeed; these just keep going
posted by Verg at 7:27 PM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]


That one from New Zealand is gorgeous....and then you read the description of the conditions!
posted by wenestvedt at 7:50 PM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]


Move yourself
You always live your life
Never thinking of the future
'Chamber of Light'
You are the move you make
Take your chances, win or loser
'Dragon Light'
Take the iron throne
You and you, and that's the only way
Shake, 'Riaño'
You make the Heavens move
So the story goes...
posted by clavdivs at 8:32 PM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]


I had the absolute fortune and luck to not only be in Bolivia during a new moon, but actually transiting on the lake titicaca boat at like, fucking midnight. The air was as thin as paper, crystal clear, and there wasn't a light on the boat or on the lake as far as you could see. You could read by the glow of the galaxy it was so bright.

I'm as athiest as the next kid on the block, but there are only a few other points in my life that I would consider on par with 'religious' experiences, and seeing the whole expanse of the milky way was one.

These are amazing.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:43 PM on June 3, 2021 [14 favorites]


Shake

*orchestra hit*
sorry; I heard this damn song so fucking often in the 80s that it's now an involuntary tic
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:02 PM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]


Thank you for this. Having grown up in the sticks with decent skies, and having been to many places with dark skies, but living in a big city now, these type of astrophotography posts are always some of my favorites.

To paraphrase what furnace.heart said, as an atheist, this is as close to “religious” as I get.
posted by pmburns222 at 11:02 PM on June 3, 2021 [4 favorites]


Right before the first lockdown last year my fifty-something-year-old butt made it to the summit of Volcán Villarica (one of the pictured locations). It's lovely to see it from a completely different perspective. So glad I was finally able to see southern hemisphere skies.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 2:59 AM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


I am trying to remember the last time I saw the galaxy with my own eyes.

For me it was last night. Bit too cloudy this evening.

The only reason it took me forty years to move out of the city is that I was born and raised there.
posted by flabdablet at 6:22 AM on June 4, 2021


This is super obvious, but: It's weird that we need to see pictures like this to remember that we're in the Milky Way Galaxy, it's not some cool thing out there, but rather a very large and basically un-graspable HERE.
posted by signal at 7:47 AM on June 4, 2021 [2 favorites]


we're in the Milky Way Galaxy ... very large and basically un-graspable

If only there was some sort of Guide.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:43 AM on June 4, 2021 [7 favorites]


these images plus a reference to Lake Titicaca upthread.. the sublime and the Grade 2 hilarity

the internet has been kind to me today
posted by elkevelvet at 11:07 AM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


Goodness. These are tremendous. I would love to see a gallery full of them printed in large format.
posted by obfuscation at 11:13 AM on June 4, 2021


Probably a dumb question. Some of them are really curved. Is that a wide-angle lens/go-pro effect?
posted by treepour at 1:04 PM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


Yeah, some of those were made with very wide-angle or even fisheye lenses. And I'd make a guess that the perspective on some of them has been modified to "pull down" the lower corners so the earth shows flat, which would exaggerate the curve of the sky.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:10 PM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


If only there was some sort of Guide.

Or indeed some sort of device — say a "vortex" — that could provide total perspective.
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:09 PM on June 5, 2021


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