Any astronomers around here? Question!

[windsor]

Can somebody please explain to me, why. These photos are from Mt. Wilson Observatory in California, and they make NO SENSE.

Image 1 in case it's too large to bring in: http://www.abidemiracles.com/images/9091mtwilson1210_0648.jpg

Now see what happens TWENTY-SIX MINUTES LATER. And this has been going on since last MAY, I know of.

Image 2: http://www.abidemiracles.com/images/9091mtwilson1210_070442.jpg

There's a blast of light that envelopes the whole observatory, and then about an hour later, it's gone and the regular, ordinary, pre-recorded sunrise occurs.

Why? And why don't they point the camera so we can see it?

 

[white rabbit]

I'm afraid you've lost me there.

what does "There's a blast of light that envelopes the whole observatory, and then about an hour later, it's gone and the regular, ordinary, pre-recorded sunrise occurs." mean?

It looks like you have the observatory in daylight and later in sunset.

Are you wondering about the time of day? I expect it's GMT. 07:00 GMT = 15:00 PST.

The time lapse is sixteen minutes, incidentally.

 

[windsor]

No, this is no sunset

Just LOOK AT the TIME-STAMPS on the photos.

The first one is PRIOR TO the second one--prior to DAWN.

HERE--USNAVAL SUNRISE DATA

U.S. Naval Observatory
Astronomical Applications Department

Sun and Moon Data for One Day
The following information is provided for Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California (longitude W118.1, latitude N34.1):

Friday
12 December 2003 Pacific Standard Time
SUN
Begin civil twilight 6:21 a.m.
Sunrise 6:49 a.m.
Sun transit 11:46 a.m.
Sunset 4:44 p.m.
End civil twilight 5:11 p.m.

The first photo taken at 647 is very very light, isn't it? But the sun itself is not suppose to rise until 6:49.

You can see a small shaft of light on the observatory dome on the NEXT picture, which was taken 16 minutes after the first one ... still just AT DAWN. Now, it's very dark, at dawn, instead of having a "civil twilight" as before.

Remember, these photos were taken in sequence 16 minutes apart, at the time of the sunrise. That's why they don't make SENSE>

 

[white rabbit]

No, I think it's sunset.

With the times in GMT.

I think it's a convention.

 

[white rabbit]

No, hang on. That can't be right. It's the other way round, isn't it.

Perhaps they turn it off when it's dark.

 

[windsor]

Now you're getting it.....

I have recorded this phenomenon half a dozen times off this Observatory CAM since last May.

At one point, on August 25th, I noted a lit body coming before the daWN, AND I archived a sequence of cam-shots of that lit body.

That sequence http://www.abidemiracles.com/9089052.htm

stands without any repudiation or explanation on the part of the Observatory.

But, I kept going back. And lately, here it is again, the blasting light before the Dawn!

The time is LOCAL TIME, not Greenwich Mean Time--it's Pacific Daylight or Pacific Standard Time--predawn.

[shrug] Doesn't make any sense to me, either.

 

[DogorKat?]

could it be somthing to do with the webcam automaticly adjusting its exposue as dawn begins?

 

[windsor]

Exposure Settings

I suppose so.

I've written them half a dozen times, asking, and they have no reply.

[shrug]

 

[sleaterkinney]

perhaps its just a picture of the observatory that they put up when its dark?

 

[windsor]

what is certain

They are a 24hrs/day observatory that doesn't even shut down in a blinding fog or storm.

They do alter the interval between cam-shots occasionally, for reasons unknown.

However, this same same phenomenon has been going on since May. There's a blast of sunlight an hour before the dawn; and just as the sun actually begins to shine upon the dome of the observatory, the whole scene falls back into relative darkness.

Finally, the light of the sun catches up, and the day seems perfectly normal. Over and over and over and over again.

I dunno.

 

[white rabbit]

windsor, how often do you check the webcam of the Mt. Wilson Observatory?

And why?

 

[DogorKat?]

and why?

seconded!

Do you think that there is somthing that they are not telling you?

I am sure it is just the automatic exposure on the cam.
Once I left my webcam taking pics of my street. Around sunset the pics would start to get darker then the cam would automaticaly switch to a night mode and the pics would get light again before going black altogether. I belive this was the same effect as the one you are seeing only in reverse.

 

[windsor]

Cam-checking

For the last eight months or so, I've become interested in near-earth objects.

I left a link further up, for some cam shots I got off that Observatory cam, last August, that showed a rather large near-earth orb, lit, before the dawn.

Previous to that, I had found the May sequence of near-earth object before the dawn that was copied off by Nancy Leider.

And so, because my time zone is 3 hours ahead of theirs, it's still convenient for me to check in at their sunrise time, to see what's going on.

But they stopped pointing anywhere near the sun itself. And, yes, with these odd-ball illuminations an hour before the dawn occurring quite frequently, and with their camera studiously pointed in another direction, I'm quite frustrated about it.

It has nothing to do with sunset. The camera is pointed north-by-northeast--a direction in which the sunset would never, in any case, occur. This is all about sunrises and why the sky lights up an hour before the sunrise, predictably.

BTW, I have a list of 50 or so cams that I check out all the time, now that I have the time to do so. Get wonderful pictures; and I think I can reproduce some of them as pastels or watercolors, very effectively, when I get around to it.

: )

 

[atitlan]

How often do the images update? What did the one prior to the 06:48 one look like? What do the overnight images look like?

 

[WouldBe]

Cam-checking

Originally posted by windsor

It has nothing to do with sunset. The camera is pointed north-by-northeast--a direction in which the sunset would never, in any case, occur. This is all about sunrises and why the sky lights up an hour before the sunrise, predictably.

Are you sure of the camera direction? From the photos on the link ( May 26th 06:05 ) the sun rises to the left of the picture which would be NNW if the camera direction is correct

For the sun to rise on the left of the May 26th picture the camera would have to be facing ESE or there abouts.

 

[WouldBe]

Also just noticed that on the May 26th photos there are some buildings in the background. yet on the Dec photos at the beginning of this thread these buildings are not present. It looks to me at though the camera position has been vastly altered since May.

 

[windsor]

Starting to make sense.

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/tcinfo.html

On the towercam info page, it explains the range and scope of the camera.

Today I caught it, just at 8am, with a light-filter half-installed, half not installed.

So, what's been going on that is so mysterious, the staff there were completely unable to explain it to anyone, is that, at sunup, they click a light filter in place, so the camera is not damaged.

Wow! What a huge secret, for them to keep from us ALL! [sigh] Ha! Ha!

 

[DogorKat?]

There may be somthing wrong here...

Ive been looking at the photos in one of the abpve links for the sunrise on may 26th 2003 and i have checked the sunrise for that date in starry night pro. The main ball of light in the top right hand corner of the pic is not the moon. the little toenail just underneath and to the right of it is the moon.

I am at a loss to explain the bright ball of light.

any ideas

 

[windsor]

I hear ya. It's peculiar

To make it even stranger yet, the moon was in New Moon phase on May 26th when those photos were taken; also, on August 25th when those photos were taken.

So, I'm clueless; but those anomalies are what got me interested in "what's going on with the sun"?

Today's sunset in keywest, florida, was odd.

and

I mean, is there one >SUN< or are there more than one--these days. Nancy Leider has 1100 photos of sun-groupings on her site http://www.zetatalk.com . Some of these photos were taken without filters, and they're from around the world. So, how many lit orbs are up there these days? Who knows?

Today, the sun peeked through the clouds for brief moments her in the mountains; but as in these cam shots, it was splashed across the sky. Yes, I did see a round orb, but splashed all around it was more dazzling light, as brilliant as the sun itself.

I don't understand this. Maybe you guys know more about meteorology and solar stuff than I do. I sure hope so.

 

[fractionMan]

Have you heard of refraction? Or the phrase 'too-much-time-on-your-hands'?

 

[WouldBe]

Alot of the photo's showing a double sun or planet X as some are calling it are nothing more than lens flare or caused by scratches or marks on the camera lens.

These images are not helped by the fact that alot of the photo's have been taken with a starburst filter fitted or taken through a welders mask which is hardly the best in available optics.

The effect of a double sun with a ribbon of cloud passing through it is very common and is an atmospheric effect.


By the way planets do not emit light, they can only reflect the sunlight falling on it, so how on earth one of the photographers claims that planet X was brighter than the sun I don't know

 

[41132n]

I would be tempted to say that this is an observed rather than actual phenomena. The camera is switching between settings to prevent overexposure of images.

Another problem is due to the brain. It 'interprets' images that it receieves as nerve impulses - a classic example being the Moon: If viewed close to the horizon and in the same field of vision as a terrestrial object it can appear to be much larger than viewed a short time afterwards when it has risen to the point where it is no longer seen alongside the horizon-bound object.

Wierd things brains [ note to self: MUST ACQUIRE]

 

[windsor]

Arm-waving ...

is dismissing everything because lens-flares exist in many of the photos.

Solid objects also appear in many of the photos in the "PX" archives at zetatalk.com.

Now, I realize the text at that site is extremely questionable. OK?

I don't get into Nancy's explanations about things.

However, if you look at her photo archives, you will see that our Sun does in fact seem to be collecting other bodies around it that are not in the regular solar system charts.

That's simply a matter of fact now, especially since Comet Neat showed up last February, a total surprise to us all.

Several months ago I got this link from USGS--
http://aslwww.cr.usgs.gov/Seismic_Data/heli2.shtml

And occasionally I would notice WHOLE-EARTH shocks would occur simultaneously. The whole page would be filled with solid-black seismic charts.

And I began to wonder--since USGS doesn't tell the truth either--whether the whole-planet shocks were actually comets hitting our landmasses, and they're just not telling us.

It wouldn't surprise me. We ARE in the path of cometary debris. Comet Neat was evidence of that fact.

The future is always uncertain, today, just a little more so. Yet, Life always goes on, with us or without us.

: )

 

[WouldBe]

Arm-waving ...

Originally posted by windsor
However, if you look at her photo archives, you will see that our Sun does in fact seem to be collecting other bodies around it that are not in the regular solar system charts.

It was based on the photo's on her site that I based my above post.

There is nothing new in these phenomena. I have been taking photo's for nearly 30 years now and have seen these effects many times in the past.

I could reproduce most of the effects in those photographs with a table lamp in a few hours. Does that mean planet X has left orbit and entered my bedroom? I doubt it very much.

Problem with most of those photo's is lack of information. Shutter speed, apperture, focal length of lense. A sequence of photo's would show that most are nothing more than atmospheric effects.

Whoever said the camera never lies obviously doesn't understand photography.