Beautiful Stop Motion with Milky Way in Spain

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide.
Spain´s highest mountain @(3715m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world´s best observatories.


The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide. I have to say this was one of the most exhausting trips I have done. There was a lot of hiking at high altitudes and probably less than 10 hours of sleep in total for the whole week. Having been here 10-11 times before I had a long list of must-see locations I wanted to capture for this movie, but I am still not 100% used to carrying around so much gear required for time-lapse movies.


A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April (http://bit.ly/g3tsDW) and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes.


Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32.


Available in Digital Cinema 4k.


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Music by my friend: Ludovico Einaudi - "Nuvole bianche" with permission.

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The Space Shuttle (Narrated by William Shatner)

Free Astronomy Webcast from Berkeley

A while back I stumbled upon these recorded Astronomy Lectures - for all of you who never got a chance to take Astronomy courses, this is some good listening. All you need is an MP3 player (physical or software) and you can listen to this class.


Astro C10 / LS C70U Introduction to General Astronomy
03:00-4:00 PM | Auditorium Wheeler
Instructor Alex Filippenko

Astro 10 - Fall 2007 - A description of modern astronomy with emphasis on the structure and evolution of stars, galaxies, and the Universe. Additional topics optionally discussed include quasars, pulsars, black holes, and extraterrestrial communication, etc. Individual instructor's synopses available from the department. Video of lectures available at webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978460

Pictures from the event

Here's what it looked like - M100 and NGC 4565

Virtual Telescope Star Party 3pm Central Today - Free

There is a free event today sponsored by "The Virtual Telescope Project" in honor of Global Astronomy Month. It's hosted by Astronomer Gianluca Masi (in Rome) and starts at 3pm Central Time.




All you have to do is go to their website to view the event - http://virtualtelescope.bellatrixobservatory.org/gsp2011.html

To be notified of their events, go to their Facebook page and join their group - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=108273675897840&ref

Two COOL Brown Dwarf Discovered;are there more?

Brown Dwarfs, in theory, have been around awhile, but the first to be discovered came in 1995. Brown Dwarfs, is a fourth, remnant of a dead star after White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes. A Brown Dwarf , is a star with low mass 0.08 Solar Mass (0.08 Msun); too low to ignite hydrogen fusion. Thus a Brown Dwarf never fires-up. Brown Dwarfs may end up in one of two new proposed stellar classification of stars termed "L" and "Y" after the present system of O,A,B,G,K & M (Hottest to Coolest). Our Sun is a G star. The L class would possess clouds of minerals and iron, while Y class would have clouds of water ice. The only heat generated is by gravity and pressure. Discovered Brown Dwarfs have a Black-Body radiation (Thermal Energy) range of 3800 degree Kelvin(3526.9 degrees Celsius) to 2700 degree Kelvin (2426.9 degree Celsius). Recently two new Brown Dwarfs have been discovered with temperatures of 370 and 300 degree Kelvin(96.9 degrees Celsius and 26.9 degrees Celsius respectively). These Brown Dwarfs are super cool compared to other discoveries. The significance here is that the planet Jupiter, which also contains hydrogen and helium and is low is relative low mass, radiates thermal energy at 150 degree Kelvin (-123.2 degrees Celsius). It has been theorized that Jupiter may have been the "other" star in our Solar System, that didn't ignite. Jupiter's mass is 0.001 Solar Mass. Further more, Earth average temperature is 288.2 degrees Kelvin (15 degrees Celsius or 59 degrees Fahrenheit for us non-metric humans.) Earth's most abundant element is hydrogen. Could we be a brown dwarf? Well, Earth's mass is 0.000003 solar mass. Which makes hydrogen fusion rather low in probability. We do have minerals and iron, but mostly in the body of the planet, not clouds. We do, however, have clouds of water ice. Are we a Class Y Brown Dwarf?? The division between a star and a planet may be becoming blurred. With search for Dark Matter and now more Brown Dwarfs being discovered, who knows, we may have been a potential star. We do know that we are the "star" of the planets; we have life.