April 13, 2005
The night sky on your birthday is never quite the same twice — the planets shift, the constellations drift, the Moon wears a different phase.
A Window to the Once Secret Sky
Birthday · April 13, 2005
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published April 13, 2005. Credit: Peter Wienerroither (U. Wien). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
If there were a window nearby to the distant universe -- would you look through it? Quite possibly, there is, in the form of a small telescope. A local skykeeper could be a relative or a stranger and is frequently proud to show off the sky free of charge. Through a window called an eyepiece, on a dark cloudless night, you can see clusters of stars, rings around Saturn, glowing nebulas of gas, craters on the Moon, and galaxies across the universe. The technology to create this window -- and the secret sky it reveals -- was unknown only 400 years ago. Modern sky opportunities may occur this Saturday, Astronomy Day, at local amateur astronomy clubs, universities, science centers, or planetariums. Pictured above is a small telescope being deployed at picturesque Hohe Wand, about 50 kilometers south of Vienna, Austria. The spin of the Earth is visible in the above photo as the long star trails.
Image credit: Peter Wienerroither (U. Wien)