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Explain it to me like I'm five: Why can we only see 90° of the sky? I look at the map at the bottom of the page and wonder why it isn't a circle. I'm obviousl
by xbryanx 4y ago
Explain it to me like I'm five:
Why can we only see 90° of the sky?
I look at the map at the bottom of the page and wonder why it isn't a circle. I'm obviously missing a key concept.
- tremon 4y agoNot sure if this answers your question, but from the description tab, under "What is this map?" The full map is actually a sphere. This visualization shows a thin slice of the Universe. Its thickness is about 10 degrees. More astronomical data is available but it is not possible to show all of it at once on a 2D map. The image would be completely saturated with dots. It actually visualizes the slice depicted on the main page as a 3D rotation. I would struggle to explain the concept of arc slicing to a five-year-old though.
- legohead 4y ago> Its thickness is about 10 degrees. Does that mean their slice is only 1/36th of the whole picture?
- tremon 4y agoIt's 1/72nd of the celestial sphere I think, since a single rotation gives you the east and west views in full, but due to the 90° field of view, you need to repeat that rotation in the north-south direction to cover the entire sphere.