Stars visible from aircraft ?

[skysurfer]

I found this URL :

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090613232007AA6XUwM

but it is *not* my experience.
Even with my camera I took the stars with the wingtip light on.
When the cabin is dark (usual during nightly long-haul flights when no meals are served) stars are easily visible despite the rather poor window quality.

[img]http://skysurfer.eu/extremeastro/IMG_1691.JPG[/url]

One comment in this page

I think that this is not possible. Crux is between 57º and 63ºS so it is not visible from LAX (34°N) even on 11km altitude. At that altitude the horizon is lowered by acos(6378/6388) = 3° which allows seeing objects till 59°S declination so only Gamma Cru is displayed znd not the entire constellation.

What are your opinions / experiences ?

[pgc hunter]

There is no way crux is visible over LA from an airliner. The horizon dip at 35000ft is only about 3 degrees.

I've seen the night sky from an airliner while were flying from Vienna to Doha. The window and cabin lighting, even if dimmed interfere, but the stars definately appeared more vivid and brighter than here, although that could be because we were well above any light pollution.

[andyc]

Saw some amazing northern lights from a plane over Canada/Greenland at night in 2006 - almost a dizying experience with dim cloud below and an arc of aurora above, had me transfixed for quite a while as the aurora was really clear and shifting/playing slowly as I watched. But a very weird experience with no clear horizon as a reference. Took a pic of it (below), but it's not going to win any astrophotography awards! Agreed with pgc hunter - the stars are particularly clear from that high, if you can shield yourself from cabin lights, no LP and sod all thick atmosphere above certainly helps!

[For SH observers - Auriga is on the left and Perseus is on the right, looking north. Mars is beneath Auriga]

What was more fun on one trip was seeing the Plough gradually emerging above India flying north after a spell in the Southern Hemisphere - like the return of an old friend, and rising noticeably over a few hours as we flew northwest.

[skysurfer]

Nice picture !

The ghost can easily be avoided.
Go to a door window (in the 747 and 777 it is horizontal, so you can just put your camera on it, I don't know the 330 and 380), put the lens toward the window, close the shutter until it touches the lens, wrap the blanket over it (the sides of the camera) and take the picture. Even the dimmest cabin lights are not reflected anymore.
One condition: it should be a smooth flight. With turbulence you are supposed to be in your seat with the seatbelts fastened and no time exposures can be taken without motion blur.

[JB80]

From my experience they don't seem to want you to have the window shutters open at night as on two occassions I have been told to close them. I think the excuse is it disturbs the other passengers.

[Zhou]

When I was young I learned many constellations on a plane trip from London to Sydney. The light pollution is so bad in London that I had a hard time learning any of the constellations but on the plane trip to Oz I saw for the first time many constellations I recognised from my astronomy books as well as Saturn and Jupiter.

[wayne anderson]

When I was flying back from Europe a few years ago crossing the equator I could see the constellation of Orion slowly rotating from upright position as they see it in the north to upside down as we see it in the south, I always wanted to have a telescope mounted in a plane.

I would love to see this one its the SOFIA Telescope onboard a 747 :eyepop:
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy – SOFIA

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/index.html (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/index.html)

http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Sofia/telescope/sofia_tele.html (http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Sofia/telescope/sofia_tele.html)

[andyc]

Thanks! And cheers for the advice :thumbsup: Going to the door window also has the benefit of giving you a view out if you're stuck in an aisle or middle section seat.