{"id":265,"date":"2025-12-30T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/?p=265"},"modified":"2025-12-30T01:49:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:49:26","slug":"finally-a-clear-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/2025\/12\/30\/finally-a-clear-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally, a clear sky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Two weeks of cloud and rain and even a few storms. No opportunity for peering into the universe until Saturday night, when I put out my wee smart scope to capture something, well, astronomically distant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"890\" height=\"890\" src=\"https:\/\/petesi.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1000001580.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/petesi.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1000001580.jpg 890w, https:\/\/petesi.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1000001580-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/petesi.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1000001580-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/petesi.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1000001580-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This faint smudge is the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/NGC_300\">Sculptor Pinwheel Galaxy <\/a>(NGC 300, Caldwell 70). I&#8217;m sure with more time on target I can improve the definition of the image, but that&#8217;s not the point. This galaxy is 6 million light years away and those photons that hit my sensor started their journey to my backyard long before our species existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How many planets are in that image? How much life? How much intelligent life? Are there creatures there who are looking back at the  Milky Way wondering the same thing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are grand questions to contemplate. I cannot offer any answer. But I do feel more of a part of the cosmos when my mind turns to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two weeks of cloud and rain and even a few storms. No opportunity for peering into the universe until Saturday night, when I put out my wee smart scope to capture something, well, astronomically distant. This faint smudge is the Sculptor Pinwheel Galaxy (NGC 300, Caldwell 70). I&#8217;m sure with more time on target I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/2025\/12\/30\/finally-a-clear-sky\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Finally, a clear sky&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,7],"tags":[12,36],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astrophotography","category-photography","tag-astrophotography","tag-galaxies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petesi.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}