Photo: Wally Pacholka
A bad thing about living in a city is the light pollution that prevents us from seeing spectacular sights like this: the Milky Way galaxy, as seen from the False Kiva in the Canyonlands National Park in Utah.
APOD, one of my favorite sites, has the larger pic:
Is there any place in the world you could see a real sight like this? Yes. Pictured above is single exposure image spectacular near, far, and in between. Diving into the Earth far in the distance is part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, taken with a long duration exposure. Much closer, the planet Jupiter is visible as the bright point just to band's left. Closer still are picturesque buttes and mesas of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA, lit by a crescent moon. In the foreground is a cave housing a stone circle of unknown origin named False Kiva. The cave was briefly lit by flashlight during the long exposure. Astrophotographer Wally Pacholka reports that getting to the cave to take this image was no easy trek. Also, mountain lions were a concern while waiting alone in the dark for just the right exposure.
If I had taken this photo, I would retire my equipment and die knowing my life had not been in vain.
You and me both! I would kill to get an opportunity and the right kit to go out and do this kind of photography.
"Is there any place in the world you could see a real sight like this? Yes."
No, no there isn't. He said himself that it's a long duration exposure, so unless you can somehow trim your eyes into becoming a hell of a lot more light sensitive you're never going to actually see that.
I'm a man, but I like the female symbolism: the cave, the circle, moonlight, the milkyway.
To gather enough light for that shot you would need a long exposure. However, the earth is turning, so a long exposure would simply give you star trails unless you tracked the sky -- in which case the cave would be a smear. Actually, I don't believe you can get that sky shot at all with a consumer (or possibly any) ground-based scope. It looks like a Hubble shot.
www.singleexposure.com
http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/photographers_about.asp?photographer=Wally%20Pacholka
Take a close look at the clipping path on the horizon. Look at it's color. The same for the sharp, shadowless opening of the cave.
Not only is it FAKE, it's not even a good one. I do image manipulation for a living.
Look at the "large version" - questionable at best.
The color is the giveaway
Sorry suckers. You have been had.
FAKE FAKE FAKE
FAKE FAKE FAKE
FAKE FAKE FAKE
FAKE FAKE FAKE
FAKE FAKE FAKE
http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/galleries.asp?Sort=Country&Value=Canada&page=1
After you do that, head west to the high and dry regions of the Four Corners area. The Milky Way can seem so bright sometimes that you will think it is illuminating the landscape.
Not. A. Fake.
1. that's pretty amazing
2. that looks like a vagina