Looking at that nebula photo from Kitt Peak last Tuesday really changed how I see the night sky

I was just browsing the sub and saw that sharp image of the Orion Nebula taken from Kitt Peak last week. It hit me that those fuzzy blobs I can barely see through my cheap backyard scope are actually giant clouds of gas where stars are being born. Three years ago I would have just scrolled past and thought it was a cool picture. Now I'm sitting here wondering if anyone else has that moment where a photo makes you feel really small but in a good way?

3 comments

3 Comments

alice_allen54d ago

Oh man, my telescope's so bad I can't even see my own dog in the backyard at night.

jenny_lee4d ago

Oh absolutely, I had that same feeling when I saw the Hubble deep field image for the first time, just this peaceful sense of being tiny.

simon_carr3d ago

See I actually kind of push back on that. To me the Hubble deep field doesn't feel peaceful at all, it feels more like this intense, almost scary reminder of how random everything is. Like you're looking at thousands of galaxies, each one with billions of stars, and none of them give a damn about you or me or anything we do. That's not peaceful to me, that's like staring into a void that's completely indifferent. It's humbling sure, but in a way that makes my stomach drop a little, not settle.