NavList:

I posted an image yesterday with a rich Milky Way starfield which, like many modern astronomy photos, especially with smartphones, shows little range in the sizes of star images, and this makes it difficult to spot patterns. I'm attaching a marked-up version of the image with some constellation hints drawn in, just to get the ball rolling. See below for the "puzzles" that you could consider for this image.

Frank Reed

I wrote previously:

You may possibly, just maybe, detect certain "issues" with this photo of a sailboat under the lovely glow of the Milky Way. If so, what are those issues or problems? Even so, the photo makes a good navigation puzzle. I can think of a few questions worth considering from the image alone:

• How many navigation stars can you count? If you're a little lost, start with that bright star toward the lower left.
• What is your latitude? I think it's possible to estimate within one degree or so, but what would you say is your confidence in the latitude?
• What direction are you facing? That is, what is the range of azimuth of the photo from the left edge to the right, based on the stars alone.
• For the amateur astronomy fans: can you spot any "deep sky" objects (star clusters, galaxies, nebulae)?

And one more question that requires some facts not in evidence. Suppose that the date is 15 November 2023 and the UT is 00:30:00. Then...

• What is your longitude? How confident can you be in that number?

You might also ponder the bright, golden glow near the top right... What could that be? Does that conflict with the astronomical "story" in this image?

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