Brain Farts, Musings, and Random Acts of Bafflement (Lightly Sautéed) by Spencer Sundell
Genuine, un-Photoshop-ed photograph of the Dec. 31, 2007 sunset as taken somewhere in the Bay Area by my olde friende, Jen. May 2008 prove the old adage true: “Red sky at night, a sailor’s delight.” Blessings, peace, and smoothest sailings to all.
As reported here back in October 2006, NASA launched two imaging satellites with the intention of producing 3D images of the Sun. Six months later, on April 23 this year, NASA unveiled the first images from the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO).
The 3D images like the one above require Red-and-Cyan (light blue) glasses, with red on left (inexplicably contrary to tradition). The NASA site provides info on sources for 3D glasses, as well as instructions on how to make your own.
STEREO is sponsored by NASA Headquarters’ Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Solar Terrestrial Probes Program Office, in Greenbelt, MD, manages the mission, instruments and science center. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, MD, designed and built the spacecraft and will operate the twin observatories for NASA during the mission.
A number of museums in the US and abroad will be displaying high-resolution STEREO images and movies, though apparently none in Seattle (yet?). Dammit.
Here are links to various NASA web sites and online galleries devoted to the STEREO Mission.
I know you’ve heard about NASA’s STEREO mission to take 3D pictures of the sun, but you also know I have to post about it. I mean, come on…space and 3D?
They’re launching 2 satellites because in order to create stereoscopic imaging of the sun, they need to establish, basically, a left and right eye. The distance between these eyes — the camera lenses — is called the interocular.
When filming on your average movie set, the interocular is usually set at about 2 1/2 inches — the distance between the eyes of an average person. But by changing the interocular, you can also play with the sense of depth. Sometimes its necessary to shoot with an extremely wide interocular in order to create the filmic experience of depth for the viewing audience. For example, one director mounted left and right cameras on the opposite wing-tips of a small airplane and flew it over a large city. This produced a much greater sense of both depth and detail than a standard 2 1/2 inch interocular would in the same scenario. In essence, the director simply enlarges the viewer’s head, giving them bigger eyes wider apart to view the world.
Or the sun, as the case may be. To get a get a good interocular, to get the eyes wide enough apart to show us a stereoscopic image of the sun, NASA has to send them thousands of miles into space in opposite directions.
Of course, what this means is that NASA will eventually be able to create stereo images of the solar system. Now imagine that.
Meanwhile, dig these photos of solar flares at Space.com.
Also:
A July 2004 NASA news story about the creation of “the first three-dimensional (3D) view of massive solar eruptions called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). …The researchers analyzed ordinary two-dimensional images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft in a new way to yield the 3D images.” Link includes downloadable Mpeg video and hi-res TIF images.
The Mars Rover 3D Image Gallery @ NASA — anaglyphic 3D images from Spirit and Opportunity, which are both still hanging on long after they were expected to keel over.
Anyone who remembers the ol’ Ripley’s Believe It Or Not cartoons knows about the fabulous coelacanth, an ancient fish thought to be extinct since the Cretaceous period that was rediscovered off of South Africa in 1938.
A new species was recently found and filmed in the seas near Indonesia. Dig this BoingBoing post about it, which also links to some gen-yoo-ine video of the critter on YouTube.
Courtesy of National Geographic, check out what crazy Germans with lasers do in their spare time. And no, this is not a Photoshop thing — it’s the real deal. The fly’s head is only 2 millimeters wide.
Holy crappie!! Get a load of these bona fide giant critters, straight from the National Geographic web site:
Giant Catfish May Be World’s Largest Freshwater Fish
“Fishers in northern Thailand netted this huge catfish in the Mekong River [Thailand] on May 1 [2005]. Nearly nine feet long (2.7 meters) and as big as a grizzly bear, the behemoth tipped the scales at 646 pounds (293 kilograms). Experts say the fish, which belongs to the species known as the Mekong giant catfish [no! get outta here!], may be the largest freshwater fish ever recorded. “
Another caption in the same photo series refers to the “dog-eating catfish,” also found in the Mekong. Yikes!
And then there’s this early contender for Best Headline of the Year (along with MSNBC’s “Puppy Drug Ring Busted”):
“[A] diver attaches a tracking device to a giant Nomura’s jellyfish off the coast of Japan… Since last summer, Japanese waters have been inundated with the massive sea creatures, which can grow 6.5 feet (2 meters) wide and weigh up to 450 pounds (220 kilograms).”
Even though the filmmakers have since confessed the forgery, it’s still nifty to see the world’s most famous Bigfoot footage realigned (in an animated gif) so you can see him walk normally without all that camera movement.
Yep. Walks like a Bubba.
(Tip of the hat to Jeff Economy.)
