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John Brecher / NBC News
Star trails light the night sky above observatories atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. In the distance is Haleakala on the island of Maui. Look at the image through red-blue glasses to see the 3-D effect.
What better way to start off the year than with a beautiful view of the heavens from one of the world's highest astronomical vantage points? Here's one way to make it better: Show it in 3-D!
This picture of the Mauna Kea Observatories was captured last month by NBC News' John Brecher during a visit to Hawaii's Big Island. The 13,796-foot-high (4,205-meter-high) facility is home to 13 telescopes, ranging from the University of Hawaii's 0.9-meter educational telescope to the 25-meter radio dish used as part of the Very Long Baseline Array.
Here you see, from left, Japan's Subaru Telescope; the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes, operated by Caltech and the University of California; and NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility. Maui's Haleakala volcano looms in the far background, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) away. As my colleague Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomy blog would say, "Holy Haleakala!"
The view is really worth exclaiming about when you see it in 3-D. If you can't make your way to Mauna Kea just now and see it in person, put on some red-blue glasses to look into the sky's depths. If you're in the market for 3-D spectacles, check out this list of online vendors. You can also keep an eye on the Cosmic Log Facebook page for our next 3-D glasses giveaway, and use your specs to see all the cosmic 3-D pictures we've pointed to over the past decade.
Here's to a delightful year of discoveries — from Mauna Kea and the rest of the world's great telescopes.
More astronomy for the new year:
- 'Comet of the Century' and other 2013 highlights
- Slideshow: The Year in Space Pictures
- 2013's first meteor shower nears peak
- This might be the year for first 'alien Earth'
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
The picture looks as if it could have been taken from what was then known as the USAF 24-inch telescope (or perhaps from the 3.8-meter United Kingdom Infrared Telescope [UKIRT]). The AF telescope has no warm control room, only a bare concrete floor. When the slit is open and the wind is ripping in and the altitude is making you suffer, you wonder if you shouldn't have become an actuary instead.
Still, even with the tiny 24-inch aperture, it is possible to observe objects in the infrared that can't be seen from lower altitude observing sites with large telescopes.
If you hate your graduate student (and doesn't everyone at some time or other?), create an IR project and insist they go to the AF 24-inch for the data. If you hate your professor (ditto as above), muck up the data and go to the beach.
;-)
You've made Alan proud.
Hey, I'll just put in my mail order to Amazon for some red-blue glasses and come back in a couple of weeks. Hey, guys and gals, show the picture in three separate frames across the page: Right Eye, Left Eye, and Right Eye again. Then 'wall-eyed' 3-D people, and 'cross-eyed' 3-D people can see this image in 3-D WITHOUT glasses. Or put L-R on one page, R-L on the next, and R-B on a third. This is now so commonly done on 3-D websites that one can expect most viewers to be able to do one or the other. Read up on 3-D before posting next time and your audience will be multipled manyfold.
Well, I hate 3d pictures, so I liked it just fine how they did it and would have liked it great without the weird effects. I'm a simple person..lol. It is a beautiful picture.
I guess only nerds get off on this stuff. Tell me again how this is going to solve current problems here on earth. No, not astrophysics problems. Problems like poverty, disease, mental health issues and starvation for instance? Hmmmmmm? It's not, so I don't care.
Carlito, internet. Google. The answers to your questions are there. And no, not only nerds like to see this type of picture. Many people enjoy it. If you don't, please feel free to look elsewhere. You know, the places nerds don't like to look, apparently.
I guess the answer would be similar to what Fermilab's Robert Wilson said when a member of Congress asked him how a super-duper, multimillion-dollar accelerator would contribute to national security:
From http://history.fnal.gov/testimony.html
SENATOR PASTORE. Is there anything connected in the hopes of this accelerator that in any way involves the security of the country?
DR. WILSON. No, sir; I do not believe so.
SENATOR PASTORE. Nothing at all?
DR. WILSON. Nothing at all.
SENATOR PASTORE. It has no value in that respect?
DR. WILSON. It only has to do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of men, our love of culture. It has to do with those things. ... It has to do with: Are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets? I mean all the things that we really venerate and honor in our country and are patriotic about. In that sense, this new knowledge has all to do with honor and country but it has nothing to do directly with defending our country - except to help make it worth defending.
Why then, are you here...?
This is not either/or. A civilization that cannot walk and chew gum at the same time, does not deserve to be called one.
I need 3-D glasses
I think NBC should supply a set for our use on their website..... :p
I have 3D glasses. Didn't see 3D. So sad.
Just returned from Mauna Kea about 5 weeks ago! I don't need the red-green glasses--I saw the real thing. Sunset from Mauna Kea Summit is one of the most spectacular events anyone can do in Hawaii. Don't miss it if you go the Hawaii. A few days later, I was on Maui at Haleakala NP and saw Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa--just great views.
The beauty of God's creative works in 3D.