The Night SKY

Old Nov 12th 2013, 5:44 am
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Default The Night SKY

OH NO not another TV thread No its not (phew!)

On another thread we've been discussing the nights and how they are not so cold at the moment. We sleep with the terrace door open, bathroom windows are left open 24h. (Not for long though).

As an insomniac, I am often up at 3-5am and watch TV, I need no heating and wear just a normal tracksuit bottom and sweats. I often go out to the terrace and look at the night sky which even with the CE light pollution is great. Orion's a belter!

It made me wonder where the best or closest place would be to see the night sky. With little in the way of towns etc around us - just golf ocean and natural parks, there must be some wonderful places close by where one even might be able to see e.g the sweep of the Milky Way - away from the lit up coastal towns and the lights of CE.

I don't want to be near the river - the first/obvious thought (eg the camino rural). I've seen the drug boats and helicopters and that man was murdered/dumped there. The river is a route for drugs. I don't want to stumble across a gang in the middle of the night, armed with binoculars!

I'm thinking north of Villablanca (but it seems a way off) or the road to Rio Seco behind M- Francisco... or perhaps up the Beja road and then inland to the barragem area, again a bit of a trek.

Any recommendations/thoughts nearby, please?

Thanks

Jon
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Old Nov 12th 2013, 6:13 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

My personal answer would be on our terrace. Although we can see other apartment blocks to our left, there is nothing straight on or to the right except the stars and the flashing lights from the windmills. We often spend time just looking at the night sky. Very peaceful.
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Old Nov 12th 2013, 8:48 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by Jon-Bxl
OH NO not another TV thread No its not (phew!)

On another thread we've been discussing the nights and how they are not so cold at the moment. We sleep with the terrace door open, bathroom windows are left open 24h. (Not for long though).

As an insomniac, I am often up at 3-5am and watch TV, I need no heating and wear just a normal tracksuit bottom and sweats. I often go out to the terrace and look at the night sky which even with the CE light pollution is great. Orion's a belter!

It made me wonder where the best or closest place would be to see the night sky. With little in the way of towns etc around us - just golf ocean and natural parks, there must be some wonderful places close by where one even might be able to see e.g the sweep of the Milky Way - away from the lit up coastal towns and the lights of CE.

I don't want to be near the river - the first/obvious thought (eg the camino rural). I've seen the drug boats and helicopters and that man was murdered/dumped there. The river is a route for drugs. I don't want to stumble across a gang in the middle of the night, armed with binoculars!

I'm thinking north of Villablanca (but it seems a way off) or the road to Rio Seco behind M- Francisco... or perhaps up the Beja road and then inland to the barragem area, again a bit of a trek.

Any recommendations/thoughts nearby, please?

Thanks

Jon
Not that nearby but not that far and a little extra holiday for you would be a drive down to Algaceras and get a ferry to Morocco. The Erg Chebbi dunes at Merzouga.
The Auberge Cafe du Sud is a fab place to stay, right in the dunes and you will see night skys like you have never seen before. Fantastic! the stars are almost touchable.
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Old Nov 13th 2013, 9:36 am
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by olivia
Not that nearby but not that far and a little extra holiday for you would be a drive down to Algaceras and get a ferry to Morocco. The Erg Chebbi dunes at Merzouga.
The Auberge Cafe du Sud is a fab place to stay, right in the dunes and you will see night skys like you have never seen before. Fantastic! the stars are almost touchable.
Thanks Kath - Something for you to look forward to when you arrive soon..... I'll pop round at 3am with a bottle of wine to see the stars on your terrace and in the morning after you've made me brekkie we'll head of to Morocco! (Thanks Olivia for that)

Best place I ever saw the Milky Way and the stars was on a remote island in the Maldives. I swam out to a small katamaran, and lay on the neting and just looked up. Amazing. My dream is to see the Northern Lights as well. Bucket list stuff.

I'm thinking the Beja road and into the country is probably the closest to CE to have minimal light pollution...

Thanks

Jon
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Old Nov 13th 2013, 12:08 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Now that's an offer I can't refuse hahaha
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Old Nov 13th 2013, 12:10 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by Jon-Bxl
Thanks Kath - Something for you to look forward to when you arrive soon..... I'll pop round at 3am with a bottle of wine to see the stars on your terrace and in the morning after you've made me brekkie we'll head of to Morocco! (Thanks Olivia for that)

Best place I ever saw the Milky Way and the stars was on a remote island in the Maldives. I swam out to a small katamaran, and lay on the neting and just looked up. Amazing. My dream is to see the Northern Lights as well. Bucket list stuff.

I'm thinking the Beja road and into the country is probably the closest to CE to have minimal light pollution...

Thanks

Jon
I believe there is an app for your smartfone that you just point at the sky and it tells you the names of the stars. Do you have it? If so what is it called?
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Old Nov 13th 2013, 12:25 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by olivia
I believe there is an app for your smartfone that you just point at the sky and it tells you the names of the stars. Do you have it? If so what is it called?
The one we have on our iPad is Skyview Free but there are quite a number of others, so another reason for you to get 'teched up' Jon
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Old Nov 13th 2013, 2:57 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by MikeCol
The one we have on our iPad is Skyview Free but there are quite a number of others, so another reason for you to get 'teched up' Jon
Not quite the stars but I also believe there is an app to identify the planes that fly overhead too? do you have a name for that one. I now have Skyview on my smartfone and can't wait for it to go dark thanks.
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Old Nov 16th 2013, 4:58 am
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by MikeCol
The one we have on our iPad is Skyview Free but there are quite a number of others, so another reason for you to get 'teched up' Jon
Sounds great, I forgot about that. I remember Jag showing that ap on his smartphone, and the OH has an ipad, so need to finagle her into allowing me to put this on it.

I cant figure out how it works, as a tiny movement on earth even a fraction of a degree.... is multi light years difference out in space... and the direction sensors on the ipads etc, aren't that good.

I also am amazed by shazam, point it to any music, anywhere in the song and after a few seconds it tells you who the singer(s), orchestra's etc are, just with a little random sample. So it must be some sort of clever pattern recognition system...

Thanks

Jon
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Old Nov 16th 2013, 4:03 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by Jon-Bxl
Sounds great, I forgot about that. I remember Jag showing that ap on his smartphone, and the OH has an ipad, so need to finagle her into allowing me to put this on it.

I cant figure out how it works, as a tiny movement on earth even a fraction of a degree.... is multi light years difference out in space... and the direction sensors on the ipads etc, aren't that good.

I also am amazed by shazam, point it to any music, anywhere in the song and after a few seconds it tells you who the singer(s), orchestra's etc are, just with a little random sample. So it must be some sort of clever pattern recognition system...

Thanks

Jon
Ok, what you have to remember is that the stars are to us, effectively fixed points in space and as the light is coming from the stars to the iPad and not the other way round this means that you can move it around and view any part of the night sky with ease.
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Old Nov 18th 2013, 11:29 am
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by MikeCol
Ok, what you have to remember is that the stars are to us, effectively fixed points in space and as the light is coming from the stars to the iPad and not the other way round this means that you can move it around and view any part of the night sky with ease.
Sure you can view the night sky, but to differentiate one star from another and to accurately identify it, might mean that it recognises patterns and then extrapolates the other stars from there... using your GPS location. Take Cassiopeia for example its pretty recognisable, so I guess it sees the pattern and then identifies the other stars around it (just guessing as I was for shazam)

Pretty clever stuff though and fun!

Thanks
Jon
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Old Nov 18th 2013, 8:13 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by Jon-Bxl
Sure you can view the night sky, but to differentiate one star from another and to accurately identify it, might mean that it recognises patterns and then extrapolates the other stars from there... using your GPS location. Take Cassiopeia for example its pretty recognisable, so I guess it sees the pattern and then identifies the other stars around it (just guessing as I was for shazam)

Pretty clever stuff though and fun!

Thanks
Jon
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Sorry to spoil your enchantment with the app but it's probably just a static star-map held in the app which is orientated by the compass and GPS chips - no pattern recognition, no intelligence (not even alien intelligence), nothing clever at all

Last edited by MikeJ; Nov 18th 2013 at 8:15 pm.
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Old Nov 18th 2013, 11:37 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by MikeJ
Jon
Sorry to spoil your enchantment with the app but it's probably just a static star-map held in the app which is orientated by the compass and GPS chips - no pattern recognition, no intelligence (not even alien intelligence), nothing clever at all
Thanks for the input

Though the stars are fixed points, the earth moves so the stars appear to move relatively to us. If you do a long exposure night shot you will see the stars all 'moving' around a fixed spot. I think if I remember correctly it could be the north star

So it has to calculate your location + the time you looking against the star map + the direction and then match it up to its static star map and ensure that at least 1 star is matched correctly to get the rest right... as the direction sensor cant be that accurate.

Still pretty clever I think....



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Old Nov 19th 2013, 10:09 am
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by Jon-Bxl
Thanks for the input

Though the stars are fixed points, the earth moves so the stars appear to move relatively to us. If you do a long exposure night shot you will see the stars all 'moving' around a fixed spot. I think if I remember correctly it could be the north star

So it has to calculate your location + the time you looking against the star map + the direction and then match it up to its static star map and ensure that at least 1 star is matched correctly to get the rest right... as the direction sensor cant be that accurate.

Still pretty clever I think....



Jon
Although the compass will always point to Polaris (the North Star) - so there's your constant fixed point in the heavens. As long as your clock and calendar are correct and understand the offset due to your location (from the GPS) - then it's a fairly straightforward algorithm - simples
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Old Nov 21st 2013, 1:42 pm
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Default Re: The Night SKY

Originally Posted by olivia
Not quite the stars but I also believe there is an app to identify the planes that fly overhead too? do you have a name for that one. I now have Skyview on my smartfone and can't wait for it to go dark thanks.
as no one appears to have given you an answer - try flightradar24.com
it isn't free unless you become a contributor to the reporting system although free if you only use the pc version, but there are others such as flightstats.com which may be
hth

Last edited by Domino; Nov 21st 2013 at 2:58 pm.
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