The Sun from afar

[pmrid (Peter)]

I just finished processing an image of the Dark Tower. I was struck by the sheer mass of stars in the image - and by their variety in colour. It is, of course not unlike similar images you might take in just about any section of the Milky Way - just a mass of stars.

This led me to wonder what our sun might look like from space. We've all seen the "Pale Blue Dot" image of course but I have not been able to find any images taken by the either of the Voyagers looking back towards "Home" which might show the sun.

The reason for my interest was the thought that such an image might help emphasize just how small a part of the known universe we occupy.

Does anyone know of such an image?

[Leo.G (Leo)]

Sorry Peter not what you want and not what I was looking for, I'm sure I'd seen a similar thing on certain planets done from space. I'll talk to a friend in Arizona and see if he can point me to it.



https://scaleofuniverse.com/en-gb


Use your scroll wheel to keep going further out into space.


Here's one on the planets, still not what I was after:


https://omgspace.net/#moon
Click on the individual planets along the bottom line, scroll wheel to enlarge planets for information.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Thanks Leo. I have often wished I had a metric I could use to help convey to kids (and adults too) just where earth is in the greater scale of things - I.e galaxy, local group, and so on outwards. I don't think many people actually grasp the fact that all the things we see in the night sky ( except perhaps Andromeda and the Greater/Less Magellenic clouds ) are inside our own little galaxy and that in turn sits vast distances away from the neighbours.

[Crater101 (Warren)]

Gudday Peter;

This may assist for our own solar system
https://atlasof.space/
although the controls can be a bit fiddly at first. There are a couple of "apps" on Google Play like this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...xymap&hl=en-us
and one or two others that may be of interest to the mobile-phone generation but I haven't used them myself, so I don't know if they'll be exactly what you're after.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Thanks Warren.

My experience in my younger days was that too much information is often just as unhelpful as too little. These solar system emulations are great in their own way but to convey the message I want, I was looking for a real image of the sun taken from as far away as possible so that a kid might have a real point of reference for a comparison and to convey the message that our sun is just another star among many.

I had imagined that a satellite heading outbound and looking back might have taken a sun shot like the one Sagan wanted that became the pale blue dot.

It's not looking good though.

[Crater101 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by pmrid

My experience in my younger days was that too much information is often just as unhelpful as too little.
...
I had imagined that a satellite heading outbound and looking back might have taken a sun shot like the one Sagan wanted that became the pale blue dot.

It's not looking good though.

You're quite correct - an overload of information can be as daunting (or as off-putting) as a lack of it. It does seem a little amazing to me though that no-one appears to have an image like the one that you're after. I would have thought that among the many studies of the sun there would have to be something, surely. You may have discovered a research gap!

[Dekker (Derrick)]

Here you go:
https://space.stackexchange.com/ques...oto-of-the-sun
and
https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00450
Taken by Voyager 1 around the same time as the pale blue dot photo.


I was kind of hoping New Horizons would have done something similar, but I can't find anything.


Edit:
There is also the Voyager 1 family portrait photo:
https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00451

[pmrid (Peter)]

Terrific Derrick. Many thanks. That is as good as it gets I think.

Peter

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

The way I endeavour to give people attending my night sky presentations an appreciation of the vastness of space and our small part in the universe may be of interest to you.

After exploring our Solar System, my presentation begins the journey beyond, by visiting Rigel Kentaurus as the closest star system to Earth. I explain it is a three star binary system with the two bright close stars the only two we can see. Refer first image, which is close to what will be visible through the telescope after the presentation.

Next comes Proxima Centauri as the faint outlier, the fact that it is actually the closest star to us (excluding the Sun, of course) and that we have discovered exoplanets orbiting.

At this point, I show an image (that I have taken) of a star field containing Proxima (attached image minus the annotation) and ask them which star do they think is Proxima. No one can identify Proxima. Next, I show the same image with the annotation identifying Proxima. By now most of the audience are agreeing that space is looking “pretty big and way beyond their comprehension”

As a final step I ask the group to think about what it would be like to travel to one of Proxima’s exoplanets, land and look back to find our Sun and Solar System. In doing so, we would be looking at a vast, star field much like the Proxima image with our Sun. Our Sun would be just one of thousands of points of light. By now most people are really starting to appreciate the vastness of space and our small part in it.

I explain these are EAA images acquired through a simple 4’ refractor - one of the telescopes that the audience members will be looking through after the presentation. That seems to add credibility rather than using Hubble and other images.

Perhaps this will give you some ideas to work with.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Thank you, Steve.

I like your approach and can readily see that it would be an effective communication tool.