Places · Impact site
Popigai crater
A 100 km crater whose shocked graphite turned into diamonds on impact. The deposit is enormous and was a Soviet state secret until 2012.
- Where
- Siberia, Russia
- Coordinates
- 71.65°N 111.18°E
- Age
- 36 million years ago
- On the map
- Show me
- More
- lpi.usra.edu
The sky from here
This is a zone 1 sky — pristine on the nine-grade scale, Bortle 1–2, reaching roughly magnitude 7.2–8.0 unaided. The Milky Way casts a shadow. Airglow is visible, the zodiacal light reaches across the sky, and the darkest places on Earth look like this.
That grade puts 107 of the catalogue within easy reach of 10×50 binoculars and 107 within a 130mm — 58 of them need no instrument at all. There is nowhere darker worth driving to; this is already among the better skies on the planet.
181 nights a year are written off before you start: from 23 March to 19 September the Sun does not sink eighteen degrees below the horizon, and nothing faint can be seen at any hour of them.
The centre of the galaxy never rises here at all, which removes the brightest part of the Milky Way from the sky permanently. Of the 110 Messier objects, 37 never set from here and 26 never rise.
Of everything in the catalogue, Owl Nebula, Pinwheel Galaxy and Little Dumbbell are the best served here, climbing to within a few degrees of straight up — an object at the zenith is being seen through the least air it will ever be seen through, and the difference against the same object low in the south is not subtle.
Cigar Galaxy, Bode's Galaxy and Spindle Galaxy never set from this latitude, so they are available on any clear night of the year rather than for one season of it.
Against that, Trifid Nebula, Lagoon Nebula and Southern Pinwheel never clear the horizon here at all. No amount of aperture or patience changes that; the only remedy is to travel.
Read at 71.65°N 111.18°E. Darkness is estimated rather than measured; everything else follows from the latitude and holds along the whole parallel. How accurate this is.
Nearby
Questions
What part of the sky never rises at Popigai crater?
Everything south of declination −18°. From 71.7°N that is a cap 72° in radius centred on the south celestial pole, which is 34% of the whole celestial sphere. That part of the sky is not merely a winter object or a difficult one; it is geometrically unavailable from this latitude. The equivalent cap around the north celestial pole is the compensation, and it never sets.
How many hours of true darkness does Popigai crater get?
Between nothing at all and 13 hours 50 minutes, depending entirely on the date. The longest night falls around 21 December; around 23 March there is no astronomical darkness at any hour, however far you get from the nearest town. The measure is astronomical darkness — the Sun a full eighteen degrees under — not simply the hours between sunset and sunrise.
When is the Milky Way best from Popigai crater?
The best part of it is not available from this latitude at all. The galactic centre lies at −29° declination and stays below the horizon from 71.7°N year-round, so no season and no equipment produces the view. The band overhead in August is the outward-facing arm in Cygnus, which is a genuine sight and a different one.
How far is Popigai crater from the other sites on this map?
The nearest is Tunguska event, about 1,260 km to the south-west. That is also the nearest other impact site, with the next one 2,940 km beyond it. Measured as the great circle between coordinates, which is the shortest path across the surface and rarely the one you could travel.