I mean we could if there wasn't so many bright lights poluting the night sky in cities and such. There are couple of places on Earth still where you can still see that.
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Light pollution is a huge issue, but galaxies are dimmer than you think! Andromeda's visible with the naked eye in dark areas, but it isn't as radiant as it is here: you need long exposure photography to truly see it in all its glory, since our eyes can't capture enough light to see it clearly.
light pollution is real. I can't see my own galaxy where I live. But that's the cost of living in a city. Either you live in a tiny place and can see it, or you live in a populated area and can't. Saw it when I were camping high up in the mountains of Norway once. Breathtakingly beautiful sight.
I have always lived in very small towns so I get to see some of the more brighter stars and stuff, but never much more unfortunately.
Would love to travel to northern part of my country where seeing the night sky better is an actual thing.
It absolutely is. Astronomers'll often keep track of the moon cycle to see what objects they can observe, since the full moon messes up dim observations
Also, a fun weird tip for anyone reading this: look to the side of dim night-sky objects instead of directly at them. You have better night vision in your peripheral than in the center of your vision. Eyes are so weird.
Yes, you aren't crazy, and that was pretty sharp of you to notice! If you want to dig into it more, look up rod distribution in the human eye. Fascinating stuff, and so weird
I knew that! Our eyes have evolved for resolution and clarity in front of us (to keep track of prey when hunting) and light sensitivity and motion in the periphery (to avoid being hunted).
I also think it's so weird that we need telescopes because of the sun. We evolved on a planet that's next to a star so our eyes evolved to handle a ton of light. We didn't evolve to see dim stuff billions of years away. If we were space blobs, we might see galaxies better. I wish I was a space blob.
Yep, everything in space is a dim black and white fuzzy spot to our eyes because our rod cells stimulate easily but our cones… not so much. I believe the only nebula you can see any color in is Orion with 10-12+ inch telescopes in dark skies, and even then, it’s more of a vague cast of color
Cameras are more sensitive though, for example this is a picture I got of Andromeda, a bit over 6h of exposure, and the aforementioned Orion nebula (also my profile picture). To my eye in an 8 inch telescope, Andromeda is a small
fuzzy patch, and Orion is dim dust with stars embedded throughout
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Would love to travel to northern part of my country where seeing the night sky better is an actual thing.
Also, a fun weird tip for anyone reading this: look to the side of dim night-sky objects instead of directly at them. You have better night vision in your peripheral than in the center of your vision. Eyes are so weird.
Human body really surprises sometimes.
Nature is cool as fuck.
fuzzy patch, and Orion is dim dust with stars embedded throughout
Telescope: Apertura 60EDR + Adjustable field flattener
Main camera: Canon EOS Rebel T100
Guide Scope: Apertura 32mm Guide Scope
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI662MC