Look at the sky.
Take a tennis ball and hold it a hundred metres away. That looks pretty small doesn't it?

At night, find a piece of sky that size, the darkest bit of sky you can find. A tiny, tiny patch of sky with no stars, planets, nebulae or whatever visible, even with a decent telescope.

Now... point the Hubble space telescope at this dark bit of sky, and take a photo. Because it's dark, you're going to need a long exposure. Try a MILLION seconds. Not a misprint - leave the shutter open for eleven days straight, pointing at a patch of sky that under normal circumstances looks completely empty.

This is what you get: panoramicuniverse.com/images/2010/08/hubble-ultra-deep-field.jpg

Every dot of light in that picture is a *galaxy*. Every one of those galaxies contains at least a hundred billion stars. And what you're looking at there is about 0.0002% of the sky - all of the rest of it looks just like that, in every direction.

Feel small?
(SonofRojBlake, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 9:37, 26 replies)

Got my (7 yo.) daughter a
700mm. telescope for Chrissie. I've got a fairly long (forgotten) background in amateur astronomy.
The craters on the moon are fascinating but she really wants to know what that couple up the road are up too.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Fri 13 Jan 2012, 9:44, closed)

To which, surely, the correct answer is
"Well, if you look closely, you might be able to see his willy...no, wait, you'll need a stronger lens..."
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 9:47, closed)

Am I right in thinking that astronomical telescopes aren't much use for spying?
Cos they turn the images upside down?

Or was someone messing with my head?
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 10:56, closed)

No, you're correct.

Terrestrial telescopes, on the other hand, reverse the image left-to-right, so that what you see in the telescope is the mirror image of what you're looking at.
(SonofRojBlake, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 14:06, closed)

Harsh
Very very harsh.

But still funny.
( DukeEuphoria Comes highly reccomended, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 16:23, closed)

It's true
Putting the image right way up needs an extra lens or an extra mirror, and in astronomical telescopes you don't want to waste even a tiny bit of light with unnecessary refraction or reflection.
(ubergeekian, Sat 14 Jan 2012, 21:15, closed)

Look at the sky,
Look at the river,
Isn’t it good?
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 10:13, closed)

Feel small?
Not with my penis.


*Struts*
( The Mock Turtle ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 10:44, closed)

Not many users on b3ta feel small.

( Undulating Tentacles of Love getting fun down to acceptable levels, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 10:48, closed)

That's my new desktop background.
I like that lots.
( Bats, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 10:56, closed)

My arms aren't 100 metres long.
But the picture is awesome nevertheless
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 11:57, closed)

Balance a grain of sand on your finger
And hold it up.
( MatJ LOOK, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 17:34, closed)

Yo Mamma's so fat this makes her feel big and significant.
(kingnutter, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 13:24, closed)

Epic!
*click*
(repooc, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 13:29, closed)

This would be an incredible, mind-blowing revelation,
if we were at Primary School.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 13:46, closed)

How does it point at the same bit of sky
for eleven straight days, whilst the Earth is rotating?
( Norbert Lightowler, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 14:17, closed)

The Hubble space telescope is in space

( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 14:32, closed)

^
such restraint in reply to the most fuckwitted question ever to appear on these pages.
(rockdoctor, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 15:42, closed)

In reply to what I hope the questioner actually MEANT...
...i.e. "how do you keep it pointed at the same spot if it's orbitting the earth" (that IS what you meant, right?)...

You don't. You point it at the same spot 800 times. (well, if you want to get REALLY technical, not *quite* the same spot, so that dithering can enhance the resolution...)
(SonofRojBlake, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 16:18, closed)

I have this on my computer at work
And every time i start to feel frustrated, depressed or down i look at this and realise how small and insignificant my problems are.
Then i go to the bogs and have a wank on works time.
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 16:08, closed)

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving...
...Revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

I thang yow.
(King Nightmare, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 16:14, closed)

Olber's Paradox
Ok, so you've established that there are a lot of stars out there. There are practically infinite numbers of stars, so if you pick any direction there will be (possibly very, very far away) a star in that direction.

So, given that there is a star in every direction, everywhere you look, you're looking directly at a star.

So why isn't the whole night sky as bright as the sun?
( Andy_R At the third stroke, the time will be precisely, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 17:14, closed)

Because it's night time.

(judgetheobscure used to sweep in butchers' shops., Sat 14 Jan 2012, 5:42, closed)

stop the Internet
we have a winner.
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Sat 14 Jan 2012, 21:55, closed)

Inverse square.
Edit: plus redshift.
( argyleblanket The man on the roof works for me, Sat 14 Jan 2012, 23:42, closed)

Well
Not EVERY point. But a large proportion of them.
( MatJ LOOK, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 17:35, closed)