I find myself wondering sometimes why we make, take, create photos. For family, for income, for memories, for art, for fame, to put on a disk and forget, or to investigate the world around us?
Sometimes I catch myself wondering why or what caught my attention for a shot and then remembering it was the light on the edge of the leaf, but the light has changed by then and the shot is gone. Perhaps better to wonder after the shot.
Anyway, was just curious as what other photographers think.
mariak

For anyone not having a serious interest in astronomy, but never the less has a passing interest in the things you see in the night sky, I happened to run across this marvelous "size comparison" chart of commonly seen "solar system" objects, and a few of the largest stars, which are said to be "galactic objects".

In order to think about "size" one must first have a reference point; the reference point commonly used when discussing things in our Solar System is the "AU" or "astronomical unit", which is 93 million miles, (the average distance between the Earth and the Sun ), as the Earth makes it's once a year orbit around our local star.

Applying this to our Solar System, (which seems pretty big to us ), here's what we have, starting with the Sun and working out towards Neptune;

The Sun is 99.8% of the mass of the entire Solar System; The Sun is 1,390,000 km in diameter;

+++++++++++Diameter +++++++++Distance from Sun
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#1. Mercury ***** 4,879 km***36 million miles ****.39 AU
#2. Venus ***12,103 km ******67 million miles ****.72 AU
#3. Earth ***12, 742 km******93 million miles ***1.00 AU
#4. Mars ****6,779 km *****142 million miles ***1.52 AU
#5. Jupiter **139,833 km*****484 million miles *** 5.2 AU
#6. Saturn ** 116,464 km ****886 million miles ****9.5 AU
#7. Uranus ***50, 724 km ****1.8 billion miles ***19.2 AU
#8. Neptune***49,244 km ***2.99 billion miles ***30.2 AU

So far, even if these may seem like very big numbers, they're really not, in terms of our Galaxy; in fact, in terms of the Milky Way Galaxy, our Solar System is a pretty small place! Our "huge" Sun? Let's compare the Sun to some BIG stars;

In Illustration No.1 we see the first four planets from the Sun, but keep in mind, they are in order of size, and NOT distance from the Sun; you can see the distances on the chart above that I typed;

1. Mercury < Mars < Venus < Earth

Moving to illustration No.2, the relative sizes are NOT to scale with those in No.1; No.2 ends with Jupiter, the biggest of all the 8 planets.

2. Earth < Neptune < Uranus < Saturn < Jupiter
3. Jupiter < Wolf 359 < Sun < Sirius

No.3 starts with Jupiter, then moves to a "small" star, then to our Sun (which we thought was "big" ), and ends with Sirius

Anyone who has ever looked at the night sky has seen Sirius many times; it's by far the brightest star in the sky...(but only because it's really "close" ). As you can see, relative to the Sun, Sirius is huge!

No.4. Sirius < Pollux < Arcturus < Aldebaran
No.4 starts with Sirius, moves to Pollux, (one of the "twins" in the constellation Gemini ), and ends with huge Aldebaran;

5. Aldebaran < Rigel < Antares < Betelgeuse

In the winter sky, at 45 deg. elevation looking south, is the easiest constellation of all to identify, the huge "lazy H" of Orion; on the top left corner of Orion is the second brightest star in the sky, and for many years when I was growing up, was thought to be the biggest star in the sky, the magnificent red super-giant, Betelgeuse. We now know that even though Betelgeuse hasn't become any smaller. those last three stars in No.6 are all "bigger"; (quite a bit bigger in fact )

6.Betelgeuse < Mu Cephei < VV Cephei A <VYCanis Majoris

Looking at No. 6 almost makes Betelgeuse look "dinky", (ever though it is the size of our Solar System out to beyond Mars or Jupiter ) (depending on which book you read, and which astronomer is "right". ) I think almost anyone would agree, VY Canis Majoris is "humongous"! At least is "was" until fairly recently; Now we find that "UY Scuti" is even "humongouser"!

Caution; If you are really interested in "the biggest", you'll probably LOVE the link below; however, I must caution you....the farther you get "into" astronomy, the "thicker" it gets! I was reading the other night that a fellow was thinking of painting a huge mural on the side of a big building, representing the scale of the relative sizes of a bunch of really big stars; in his mural-to-be, the Sun was to be the size of a "BB" (app. .25 in. in dia. ) after much calculation, it was determined that UY Scuti needed to be 168 feet in dia. (and wouldn't "fit" on the building! )


http://www.google.com/search?q=uy+scuti+compared+to+vy+canis+majoris&oq=UY+Scuti&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j0l4.15312j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8

A liberal conservative, not a conservative liberal.
Exactly, that is the point. I used to be a republican.
That was before I felt they sold us down the river.

Both parties are self serving and don't care about
those that voted them in. All they care about is
filling their own pockets. They don't care about
what's best for our country. In a nut shell, both
parties are bad. That's why countries like China
own us. we are pretty much bankrupt in case you
haven't noticed.

Your right about the tea party not being a party.
They are the conservative conservatives and they
think they can bring the republicans back around to
their way of thinking. All that does is split the vote.
That's why the democrats win.

I usually don't get involved in the chit chat here.
I'm more interested in photography, but sometimes
when the pusher man throws these crazy articles
out there I can't resist seeing what he's pushing now.
:thumbup: :thumbup:

A liberal conservative, not a conservative liberal.
Exactly, that is the point. I used to be a republican.
That was before I felt they sold us down the river.

Both parties are self serving and don't care about
those that voted them in. All they care about is
filling their own pockets. They don't care about
what's best for our country. In a nut shell, both
parties are bad. That's why countries like China
own us. we are pretty much bankrupt in case you
haven't noticed.

Your right about the tea party not being a party.
They are the conservative conservatives and they
think they can bring the republicans back around to
their way of thinking. All that does is split the vote.
That's why the democrats win.

I usually don't get involved in the chit chat here.
I'm more interested in photography, but sometimes
when the pusher man throws these crazy articles
out there I can't resist seeing what he's pushing now.
:thumbup: :thumbup: