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all 87 comments

[–]Garrettishere 47 points48 points ago

This is comet McNaught, or the Great Comet of 2007. It's actually only a three photograph panorama. Awesome shot, thanks for sharing.

[–]kibitzor -4 points-3 points ago

Although this is an awesome photo, it's not exactly what I want to be seeing in /r/space

*edit

I'm referring to the original shot submitted by ssommer01.

Please don't downvote, rather, ask questions and start a discussion!

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points ago

... why?

[–]HungryMoblin 2 points3 points ago

I think he was talking about the one ssommer01 posted, and probably because only a small fraction of it has to do with space. I might be wrong, but I don't really have a lot to go off of. I personally don't mind it as long as it's got something to do with space.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points ago

Either way, both images are of objects in space, just taken from Earth. Why is this not where they should go?

[–]feureau 4 points5 points ago

It's been raised that /r/space should be the space equivalent of /r/science or maybe r/askscience, that is to discuss the scientific and engineering topics pertaining to space. While pictures like these should go to r/spaceporn.

I'm still undecided on the issue. Besides, I think it's a non-issue anyway.

Maybe we should seek council from the great Neil DeGrasse Tyson over at the temple of twitter

[–]Garrettishere 0 points1 point ago

My take on the whole /r/spaceporn vs. /r/space (basically where images are posted) debacle goes something like this:

Clearly, people in /r/space are interested in this stuff as it's gotten 1300+ upvotes w/ 3/4 of the people liking it. There are no rules posted by the mods as to what is posted in /r/space so as long as the subscribers are enjoying it, I don't see a problem with it.

Reddit is very much a democracy and, as is typical with a democracy, the majority is and always will be winning.

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]kibitzor 0 points1 point ago

It's tough to get people to discuss what they don't like.

[–]Ezrado 27 points28 points ago

Jesus that was some lucky timing. I understand it's quite a long exposure, but still...

[–]celidee 30 points31 points ago

This is a composite of many images stitched together from the day. I forgot where I read it but its not a single capture.

[–]hvusslax 22 points23 points ago

I think there would be no way to catch the bright flash of a lighting and the much fainter comet in the sky in a single picture, no camera has that kind of dynamic range.

[–]Saganomics 6 points7 points ago

This shot should be quite possible with some careful post-processing to recover shadow and highlight detail. It helps that it's a 3-frame panorama - he could vary the exposure slightly from left to right and then mask off the beach and adjust its exposure to be equal all the way across later.

[–]DeskFlyer 11 points12 points ago

You probably read about it here. The photographer's page can be found here.

[–]MrOrdinary 1 point2 points ago

I couldn't get that lucky in a thousand years of Sundays.

[–]flightsin 9 points10 points ago

Largest version I could find (1744x600). Still not enough for a multi-monitor wallpaper, unfortunately.

[–]zjbird 0 points1 point ago

I use two monitors at 1920 x 1080 resolution. Two questions...first off, where can I find images that would look good with two monitors, and second, how do I get my (windows) desktop to stretch onto both monitors and not just put the same image on each monitor? None of the settings seem to do this for me (fill, fit, stretch, center).

[–]Melloverture -1 points0 points ago

Multi Monitor Wallpaper

Assuming you have windows 7:

  • Right click desktop
  • Click "Screen Resolution"
  • Next to "Multiple Displays" select "Extend these displays"

[–]mspong 2 points3 points ago

I was inspired to look for a source of information on comets currently visible, and found http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html Note that magnitude is an inverse scale, low numbers are brighter than high ones.

One interesting comet, C/2011 L4 ( PanSTARRS ), is predicted to be magnitude -1 naked-eye comet next year.

[–]bluedays 4 points5 points ago

Someone mind linking to the apod page instead of direct linking to the image?

[–]MrHall 0 points1 point ago

.. and that page links the original artist, who probably deserves credit: http://www.jkemppainen.com/antti/ancient/

[–]vorticalbeans 8 points9 points ago

Is this real life?

[–]tyrroi 4 points5 points ago

I think the images are real but photoshoped together.

[–]nobammer420 1 point2 points ago

There's proof o ghosts in this pic.

[–]karmaisdharma 1 point2 points ago

Fireworks lightning and comets - OH MY

[–]tellu2 1 point2 points ago

This can't be real...that's way to much awesome for one photo.

[–]ratamac 0 points1 point ago

if not shopped - that's excellent!

[–]coolwebsitebro 0 points1 point ago

Very atmospheric.

[–]lunar_aurora 0 points1 point ago

Clusterfuck of amazing.

[–]yoolee 0 points1 point ago

This photo is gorgeous.

[–]GQ4U -1 points0 points ago

I looked at this picture while tripping and it was incredible. Even sober it's still incredible

[–]Havuk8888 -1 points0 points ago

Where did you take this? Just beautiful, photo shop or not.