3 ms·

I can't comprehend how some artist manages to draw something like a gas cloud so accurately. In fact it is all impressive, maybe with the exception of Mars.

_Microft 5y ago
The Orion Nebula [0] is appearing relatively large on the sky, about 1° (= 60 arc minutes) wide. This is approximately twice as wide as a full moon appears on the sky. With a telescope, you should easily be able to make out details. It's the white-ish blob in the "vertical" chain of stars in the lower center of this image [1]. The yellow-orange star in the top left is Betelgeuse by the way. It was in the news a while ago because it had dimmed a lot and some people (not astronomers though) were hoping for a supernova. That's a different one from "Tabby's Star" which was also in the news because of unexpected dimming. Drawing comes with practice by the way. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Orion_composite1.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Orion_co...
sedan_baklazhan 5y ago
Check out Mars from a decent telescope. It's a blurry tiny yellow circle with very unclear "shadows" on it. They drew it really well. Much more impressive than Orion in fact.
- darkerside 5y ago
  Why is Orion unimpressive? Because the author didn't include visible representations of wavelengths that are outside of the range of human detectability?
  - transportguy 5y ago
    the drawing of orion is unimpressive, as it is easily visible and drawable to a similar quality with any telescope or even binoculars if you have clear skies. Spotting any sort of features on mars requires huge magnification incredible steadiness and an ability to track the object. Drawing the details for Mars required magnitudes more ability and far better technology.
    - perl4ever 5y ago
      For reference, Orion is about 3,600 arcseconds wide [http://spider.seds.org/ngc/revngcic.cgi?NGC1976 http://spider.seds.org/ngc/revngcic.cgi?NGC1976], whereas Mars is from 4 to 25 [https://web.archive.org/web/20100612092806/http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/marsfact.html https://web.archive.org/web/20100612092806/http://nssdc.gsfc...] depending on its distance.
derbOac 5y ago
Certain elements of the Mars drawing having me looking for an explanation. Maybe it's just artistic license, but other features are so similar to contemporary photos that it makes me think there's a more practical explanation.

_Microft 5y ago

The Orion Nebula [0] is appearing relatively large on the sky, about 1° (= 60 arc minutes) wide. This is approximately twice as wide as a full moon appears on the sky. With a telescope, you should easily be able to make out details. It's the white-ish blob in the "vertical" chain of stars in the lower center of this image [1]. The yellow-orange star in the top left is Betelgeuse by the way. It was in the news a while ago because it had dimmed a lot and some people (not astronomers though) were hoping for a supernova. That's a different one from "Tabby's Star" which was also in the news because of unexpected dimming. Drawing comes with practice by the way. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Orion_composite1.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Orion_co...

sedan_baklazhan 5y ago

Check out Mars from a decent telescope. It's a blurry tiny yellow circle with very unclear "shadows" on it. They drew it really well. Much more impressive than Orion in fact.

darkerside 5y ago
Why is Orion unimpressive? Because the author didn't include visible representations of wavelengths that are outside of the range of human detectability?
- transportguy 5y ago
  the drawing of orion is unimpressive, as it is easily visible and drawable to a similar quality with any telescope or even binoculars if you have clear skies. Spotting any sort of features on mars requires huge magnification incredible steadiness and an ability to track the object. Drawing the details for Mars required magnitudes more ability and far better technology.
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    For reference, Orion is about 3,600 arcseconds wide [http://spider.seds.org/ngc/revngcic.cgi?NGC1976 http://spider.seds.org/ngc/revngcic.cgi?NGC1976], whereas Mars is from 4 to 25 [https://web.archive.org/web/20100612092806/http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/marsfact.html https://web.archive.org/web/20100612092806/http://nssdc.gsfc...] depending on its distance.

derbOac 5y ago

Certain elements of the Mars drawing having me looking for an explanation. Maybe it's just artistic license, but other features are so similar to contemporary photos that it makes me think there's a more practical explanation.