The very best place on Earth to observe the heavens


	The very best place on Earth to observe the heavens

amgumen

8-31-2009 11:47 PM

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8-31-2009 11:48 PM

willhelm

Bummer! Don't think I'll make it there.

8-31-2009 11:56 PM

amgumen

OK, we will observe their observation from where we are.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/0b8b8b9e-d521-4241-80ae-61efdddde31f/58D64D1E-13EF-4B65-AE94-7A649E675A9A/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bestplaceonearth/" href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bestplaceonearth/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.wired.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bestplaceonearth/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.wired.com/img/921EEE9F-B5D7-4F98-8E98-FE8C55D3FF7F" alt="bestplaceonearth" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bestplaceonearth/"><P>Ridge A, as the spot is known, is located in Antarctica, six hundred miles from the South Pole and 13,297 feet above sea level. All things considered, it’s probably the very worst place on the surface of the planet for humans.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bestplaceonearth/"><P>As far as anyone knows, no person has ever even set foot there. But thanks to satellite data, scientists now know that Ridge A surpasses all other sites based on eight factors that impact the sharpness of observations, like cloud cover and atmospheric turbulence.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bestplaceonearth/">Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bestplaceonearth/"><P>The simple observatory is, in the words of University of Arizona astronomer Craig Kulesa, a steel shipping container that scientists “cut in half and insulated the crap out of.”</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bestplaceonearth/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.wired.com/img/E77B0010-D1BA-4FA8-B16E-5CB1264639BD" alt="The PLATO Modules " /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/58D64D1E-13EF-4B65-AE94-7A649E675A9A/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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