• Cyclist
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    7 months ago

    Amateur. In a dark location, on a clear night, I can see the Andromeda Galaxy, 2.3 million light years away.

      • don@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Neptune: tf are you talking about

        The Oort Cloud: lolwut

        Interstellar medium: fuck me, it’s cold

        Sagittarius A*: (chuckles softly)

        Andromeda Galaxy: tf is a sun

        Laniakea Supercluster: yo is that the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall?? What up, homie!

        Universe: gotta go fast

        Can:

  • Lord Wiggle
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    7 months ago

    Look at the sun for a while and you won’t see anything ever anymore.

  • warbond
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    7 months ago

    Where did you learn that? Is that a real thing people are taught?

      • Dasus
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        7 months ago

        I don’t want to check miles, but it’s pretty on point with what I remember, which is the horizon being 5km away for a 180cm (~6ft) tall person. (3 miles is close enough to 5km)

        Getting even a few meters of something under you would drastically change how far you see.

        • usrtrv@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          A few extra meters wouldn’t be too drastic. From the top of Everest the horizon is about 300km away.

          • Dasus
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            7 months ago

            1.8 meters sees ~4.8km. Standing on top of a car, on someone else’s shoulders, at say, 5 meters, would give you eight kilometers.

            Granted, not too drastic yeah. But like, if you have a tree, and climb it, and it’s, say, 15 meters. Now you can see ~14 kilometers.

            I’d say going from ~5 to ~14 by climbing a tree (or a mast of a ship) is pretty significant, but not drastic, I’d agree to that, yeah.

            I wonder how much it was an advantage at sea, really. Like the scout at the top of your mast would be able to see the enemy ship from very far, while the enemies would technically be able to see only the mast of the ship that the scout is on, making it much harder to spot. I’m sure someone’s written about it in tedious length. An upvote to anyone who finds me such texts.

              • Dasus
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                7 months ago

                I mean yes, that’s obviously the purpose. I just wonder how effective it was, and would like to read about it.

              • yetiftw
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                7 months ago

                did you just not read the last paragraph??

      • Lord Wiggle
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        7 months ago

        Depends how high you are. On a tower you can see much further.

      • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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        7 months ago

        That’s just weird. The question is about the eye. And the primary “answer” they give is about the geometry of our planet.

        Edit: At least the real answer is somewhere further down in the text:

        Theoretically, in a vacuum there’s no limit to how far away your eyes could see since light rays can travel an infinite distance, McCulley says.

        • OfCourseNot@fedia.io
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          7 months ago

          Light emitted farther than 46 billion light years away will never reach you. While traveling an infinite distance the universe expands faster, and light emitted not that far will get so red-shifted that it won’t be visible anymore.

  • don@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    tbf, looking at the sun from three miles away would be all that you could see.

    Y’know, if it didn’t instantly turn you into plasma.