Fuddland

This is really quite nifty: if you’ve dabbled in night-time photography of stars, then upload the photo to Flickr, submit it to the Astrometry group, and wait a little while. The automated tools of Astrometry.net will analyse the photo and leave a lovely comment telling you what the major stars and astronomical objects are, as well as actually notating the photo. Head on over to a photo I took almost four years ago to see what I mean. Apparently it contains:

• The star Rigel (βOri)
• The star Betelgeuse (αOri)
• The star Bellatrix (γOri)
• The star Alnilam (εOri)
• The star Mirzam (βCMa)
• The star Alhena (γGem)
• The star Alnitak (ζOri)
• The star Saiph (κOri)
• The star Mintaka (δOri)
• The star Arneb (αLep)
• The Witch Head nebula
• The Great Nebula in Orion
• Horsehead nebula
• Christmas Tree cluster / Cone nebula

Sadly the chances of taking any starry photos while living in Sūzhōu (苏州) are close to zero, but hopefully one day I’ll be in less polluted climes, and this tool will make it a lot easier to find out exactly what I’m gazing at, instead of all that tiresome “learning” stuff.

#1

Jonathan Hearing | 2008 / 11 / 06 – 21:43

Cool, I especially like the way they have identified a couple of stars in the bedrooms of the houses in the foreground! Maybe someone left the lights on.

#2

Brown | 2008 / 11 / 07 – 08:02

Object IC 2177 reminds me of a typical house off the Welford Road in Leicester. The Universe is a strange place.

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