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This Is the Best Spot on Earth for Stargazing—If You Can Handle It - Gizmodo

This Is the Best Spot on Earth for Stargazing—If You Can Handle It - Gizmodo

This Is the Best Spot on Earth for Stargazing—If You Can Handle It - Gizmodo
Jul 30, 2020 56 secs

Dome A—the highest ice dome in the Antarctic Plateau—allows for the clearest views of the starry sky at night, according to new research published this week in Nature.

So while the new paper proposes an optimal location for doing astronomy, the remote location of Dome A, also known as Dome Argus, presents some considerable challenges.

Astronomers have a metric, called the seeing number, to denote the quality of the night sky view, which they measure in arcseconds.

At Dome C, another ice dome located on the Antarctic Plateau, this number is between 0.23 to 0.36 arcseconds, highlighting the frozen continent as an ideal place to view the night sky.

Measurements from Dome A at a height of 26 feet (8 meters) were far better than measurements taken at the same height at Dome C.

In fact, measurements from Dome A at this height were equivalent to measurements made at 66 feet (20 meters) at Dome C, revealing the former as the superior location.

“The combination of high altitude, low temperature, long periods of continuous darkness, and an exceptionally stable atmosphere, makes Dome A a very attractive location for optical and infrared astronomy.

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