Cosmos - Blog Posts
http://www.journal-du-design.fr/art/astral-bodies-par-enorme-studio-vitamin-a-la-milan-design-week-pour-finsa-117524/?fbclid=IwAR15nsMuXsjngGcCAomqzqbX4v-XFCKUiT7aX4hy7xO3V4I30ceTIxmZIpw
A Jack Kirby splash page for his 2001: A Space Odyssey series.
“we saw the edges of all there is — so brutal and alive it seemed to comprehend us back” Tracy K. Smith, My God It’s Full of Stars (via: skinthepoet)
Messier 78: a reflection nebula in Orion js
trying smth new, but its still looks like smth old
The Pillars of Eagle Castle What lights up this castle of star formation? The familiar Eagle Nebula glows bright in many colors at once. The above image is a composite of three of these glowing gas colors. Pillars of dark dust nicely outline some of the denser towers of star formation. Energetic light from young massive stars causes the gas to glow and effectively boils away part of the dust and gas from its birth pillar. Many of these stars will explode after several million years, returning most of their elements back to the nebula which formed them. This process is forming an open cluster of stars known as M16. Image Credit & Copyright: Emanuele Colognato & Jim Wood
Ah jadi pengen kerja di NASA! Impian masalalu :')
Dusty Nebulae in Taurus This complex of dusty nebulae linger along the edge of the Taurus molecular cloud, a mere 450 light-years distant. Stars are forming on the cosmic scene, including extremely youthful star RY Tauri prominent toward the upper left of the 1.5 degree wide telescopic field. In fact RY Tauri is a pre-main sequence star, embedded in its natal cloud of gas and dust, also catalogued as reflection nebula vdB 27. Highly variable, the star is still relatively cool and in the late phases of gravitational collapse. It will soon become a stable, low mass, main sequence star, a stage of stellar evolution achieved by our Sun some 4.5 billion years ago. Another pre-main sequence star, V1023 Tauri, can be spotted below and right, embedded in its yellowish dust cloud adjacent to the striking blue reflection nebula Ced 30. Image Credit & Copyright: Bob Franke
I had the pleasure of working with Francois Vigneault at Scout Books again, on an illustrated set of their blank mini notebooks. My theme was, fantastically, the cosmos, so I went completely indulgent with this and decked out the constellations Virgo, Capricorn, and Perseus in gleaming gold armor. My kind of project! This was a lot of fun and I'm psyched to have been paired with the talented Lisa Perrin whose beautifully illustrated set will be released in conjunction.
If you're in Baltimore a week from today, we will both be at Trohv in Hampden for a little release party for the notebooks from 6 - 8pm. Stop by, pick up a set and say hello! Event page here. Hope to see you there!
“In a galaxy far, far away...”
EXIT you are so COSMOS
Viagem pelas imagens.
A Whole New Jupiter: First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission
Early science results from NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter portray the largest planet in our solar system as a complex, gigantic, turbulent world, with Earth-sized polar cyclones, plunging storm systems that travel deep into the heart of the gas giant, and a mammoth, lumpy magnetic field that may indicate it was generated closer to the planet’s surface than previously thought.
“We are excited to share these early discoveries, which help us better understand what makes Jupiter so fascinating,” said Diane Brown, Juno program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It was a long trip to get to Jupiter, but these first results already demonstrate it was well worth the journey.”
Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, entering Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016. The findings from the first data-collection pass, which flew within about 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) of Jupiter’s swirling cloud tops on Aug. 27, are being published this week in two papers in the journal Science, as well as 44 papers in Geophysical Research Letters.
“We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “But now that we are here we are finding that Jupiter can throw the heat, as well as knuckleballs and sliders. There is so much going on here that we didn’t expect that we have had to take a step back and begin to rethink of this as a whole new Jupiter.”
Among the findings that challenge assumptions are those provided by Juno’s imager, JunoCam. The images show both of Jupiter’s poles are covered in Earth-sized swirling storms that are densely clustered and rubbing together.
“We’re puzzled as to how they could be formed, how stable the configuration is, and why Jupiter’s north pole doesn’t look like the south pole,” said Bolton. “We’re questioning whether this is a dynamic system, and are we seeing just one stage, and over the next year, we’re going to watch it disappear, or is this a stable configuration and these storms are circulating around one another?”
Another surprise comes from Juno’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR), which samples the thermal microwave radiation from Jupiter’s atmosphere, from the top of the ammonia clouds to deep within its atmosphere. The MWR data indicates that Jupiter’s iconic belts and zones are mysterious, with the belt near the equator penetrating all the way down, while the belts and zones at other latitudes seem to evolve to other structures.
The data suggest the ammonia is quite variable and continues to increase as far down as we can see with MWR, which is a few hundred miles or kilometers.
Prior to the Juno mission, it was known that Jupiter had the most intense magnetic field in the solar system. Measurements of the massive planet’s magnetosphere, from Juno’s magnetometer investigation (MAG), indicate that Jupiter’s magnetic field is even stronger than models expected, and more irregular in shape. MAG data indicates the magnetic field greatly exceeded expectations at 7.766 Gauss, about 10 times stronger than the strongest magnetic field found on Earth.
“Juno is giving us a view of the magnetic field close to Jupiter that we’ve never had before,” said Jack Connerney, Juno deputy principal investigator and the lead for the mission’s magnetic field investigation at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“Already we see that the magnetic field looks lumpy: it is stronger in some places and weaker in others. This uneven distribution suggests that the field might be generated by dynamo action closer to the surface, above the layer of metallic hydrogen. Every flyby we execute gets us closer to determining where and how Jupiter’s dynamo works.”
Juno also is designed to study the polar magnetosphere and the origin of Jupiter’s powerful auroras – its northern and southern lights.
These auroral emissions are caused by particles that pick up energy, slamming into atmospheric molecules. Juno’s initial observations indicate that the process seems to work differently at Jupiter than at Earth.
Juno is in a polar orbit around Jupiter, and the majority of each orbit is spent well away from the gas giant. But, once every 53 days, its trajectory approaches Jupiter from above its north pole, where it begins a two-hour transit (from pole to pole) flying north to south with its eight science instruments collecting data and its JunoCam public outreach camera snapping pictures. The download of six megabytes of data collected during the transit can take 1.5 days.
“Every 53 days, we go screaming by Jupiter, get doused by a fire hose of Jovian science, and there is always something new,” said Bolton. “On our next flyby on July 11, we will fly directly over one of the most iconic features in the entire solar system – one that every school kid knows – Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. If anybody is going to get to the bottom of what is going on below those mammoth swirling crimson cloud tops, it’s Juno and her cloud-piercing science instruments.”
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for NASA. The principal investigator is Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, in Denver, built the spacecraft.
IMAGE 1….This image shows Jupiter’s south pole, as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers). The oval features are cyclones, up to 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) in diameter. Multiple images taken with the JunoCam instrument on three separate orbits were combined to show all areas in daylight, enhanced color, and stereographic projection. JunoCam’s raw images are available at www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam for the public to peruse and process into image products
IMAGE 2….NASA’s Juno spacecraft carries an instrument called the Microwave Radiometer, which examines Jupiter’s atmosphere beneath the planet’s cloud tops. This image shows the instrument’s view of the outer part of Jupiter’s atmosphere. Before Juno began using this instrument, scientists expected the atmosphere to be uniform at depths greater than 60 miles (100 kilometers). But with the Microwave Radiometer, scientists have discovered that the atmosphere has variations down to at least 220 miles (350 kilometers), as deep as the instrument can see. In the cut-out image to the right, orange signifies high ammonia abundance and blue signifies low ammonia abundance. Jupiter appears to have a band around its equator high in ammonia abundance, with a column shown in orange. This is contrary to scientists’ expectations that ammonia would be uniformly mixed.
IMAGE 3….The complexity and richness of Jupiter’s “southern lights” (also known as auroras) are on display in this animation of false-color maps from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Auroras result when energetic electrons from the magnetosphere crash into the molecular hydrogen in the Jovian upper atmosphere. The data for this animation were obtained by Juno’s Ultraviolet Spectrograph. The images are centered on the south pole and extend to latitudes of 50 degrees south. Each frame of the animation includes data from 30 consecutive Juno spins (about 15 minutes), just after the spacecraft’s fifth close approach to Jupiter on February 2, 2017. The eight frames of the animation cover the period from 13:40 to 15:40 UTC at Juno. During that time, the spacecraft was receding from 35,000 miles to 153,900 miles (56,300 kilometers to 247,600 kilometers) above the aurora; this large change in distance accounts for the increasing fuzziness of the features. Jupiter’s prime meridian is toward the bottom, and longitudes increase counterclockwise from there. The sun was located near the bottom at the start of the animation, but was off to the right by the end of the two-hour period. The red coloring of some of the features indicates that those emissions came from deeper in Jupiter’s atmosphere; green and white indicate emissions from higher up in the atmosphere.
IMAGE 4….As NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew through the narrow gap between Jupiter’s radiation belts and the planet during its first science flyby, Perijove 1, on August 27, 2016, the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU-1) star camera collected the first image of Jupiter’s ring taken from the inside looking out. The bright bands in the center of the image are the main ring of Jupiter’s ring system. While taking the ring image, the SRU was viewing the constellation Orion. The bright star above the main ring is Betelgeuse, and Orion’s belt can be seen in the lower right. Juno’s Radiation Monitoring Investigation actively retrieves and analyzes the noise signatures from penetrating radiation in the images of the spacecraft’s star cameras and science instruments at Jupiter.
IMAGE 5….This sequence of enhanced-color images shows how quickly the viewing geometry changes for NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it swoops by Jupiter. The images were obtained by JunoCam. Once every 53 days the Juno spacecraft swings close to Jupiter, speeding over its clouds. In just two hours, the spacecraft travels from a perch over Jupiter’s north pole through its closest approach (perijove), then passes over the south pole on its way back out. This sequence shows 14 enhanced-color images. The first image on the left shows the entire half-lit globe of Jupiter, with the north pole approximately in the center. As the spacecraft gets closer to Jupiter, the horizon moves in and the range of visible latitudes shrinks. The third and fourth images in this sequence show the north polar region rotating away from our view while a band of wavy clouds at northern mid-latitudes comes into view. By the fifth image of the sequence the band of turbulent clouds is nicely centered in the image. The seventh and eighth images were taken just before the spacecraft was at its closest point to Jupiter, near Jupiter’s equator. Even though these two pictures were taken just four minutes apart, the view is changing quickly. As the spacecraft crossed into the southern hemisphere, the bright “south tropical zone” dominates the ninth, 10th and 11th images. The white ovals in a feature nicknamed Jupiter’s “String of Pearls” are visible in the 12th and 13th images. In the 14th image Juno views Jupiter’s south poles.
IMAGE 6….Waves of clouds at 37.8 degrees latitude dominate this three-dimensional Jovian cloudscape, courtesy of NASA’s Juno spacecraft. JunoCam obtained this enhanced-color picture on May 19, 2017, at 5:50 UTC from an altitude of 5,500 miles (8,900 kilometers). Details as small as 4 miles (6 kilometers) across can be identified in this image. The small bright high clouds are about 16 miles (25 kilometers) across and in some areas appear to form “squall lines” (a narrow band of high winds and storms associated with a cold front). On Jupiter, clouds this high are almost certainly composed of water and/or ammonia ice.
IMAGE 7….Small bright clouds dot Jupiter’s entire south tropical zone in this image acquired by JunoCam on NASA’s Juno spacecraft on May 19, 2017, at an altitude of 7,990 miles (12,858 kilometers). Although the bright clouds appear tiny in this vast Jovian cloudscape, they actually are cloud towers roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide and 30 miles (50 kilometers) high that cast shadows on the clouds below. On Jupiter, clouds this high are almost certainly composed of water and/or ammonia ice, and they may be sources of lightning. This is the first time so many cloud towers have been visible, possibly because the late-afternoon lighting is particularly good at this geometry.
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Horseshoe Bend of the Little Colorado River by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Horseshoe Bend of the Little Colorado River. There are 4-5 horseshoe bends in the Little Colorado River within the Grand Canyon, and this is one of them. Different bends line up with the Milky Way at different times. This is in the Navajo Nation so you need a permit to go there. The Grand Canyon is not as deep here as it is more west, but is still really impressive, and the river views are excellent. That is the real color of the water. I have not changed it at all, only mildly increased contrast. The sky is a stack processed in Starry Landscape Stacker. This is one frame at 14 mm. Foreground was a long exposure of 5 min, f/2.0, ISO 1600. Sky was a stack of 20 images at f/2.0, 20 sec, ISO 6400. Images blended in PS. There was a LOT of airglow which I find appealing. Cheers, Wayne
Feeling Small in Big Hogan by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook This is a vertical panorama in Big Hogan Arch in Monument Valley, Utah. After taking the panorama I photographed myself with the same lens and settings and added it to the panorama in the same position. As you can see, Big Hogan Are is aptly named. It is huge. You feel like you are standing in a cathedral. The hole at the top is actually overhead in reality. The appearance here makes it look like it is in the front wall, but that is the result of trying to fit the inside of a sphere onto a rectangular image. You need a guide to enter Monument Valley at night. If you are interested in a night tour contact Majestic Monument Valley Tours and ask for Quanah. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!
To Walk a Pale Land by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook To Walk A Pale Land. Part of a series from the New Mexico Badlands. This is a panorama of 9 vertical shots taken at 14 mm with a 14-24 mm lens, f/2.8, ISO 12,800. I was about 6-8 feet from the larger hoodoos on the sides, very close. There was considerable distortion in the individual photos from being so close, but the combined photos in the panorama eliminated the distortion remarkably well. People frequently ask me about nodal rails and parallax. The current versions of Lightroom and Photoshop do remarkably well at eliminating parallax error in the photos. I do have a nodal rail and take as many panoramas as I can manage, but I do not bother with the nodal rail. I do not use it, and have never had an issue with parallax preventing stitching or distorting the image. In this image I was trying it o catch the rising MW between the hoodoos. Taken in May 2018. There are no paths in the New Mexico Badlands, and multiple places you can visit. If you want guidance consider contacting Kialo Winters @chacorunner, at Navajo Tours USA, highly recommend! Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!
Hoodoo Hill by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Hoodoo Hill, New Mexico Badlands. Single exposure with Low Level Lighting. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!
Small Canyon in Nevada by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Small Canyon in Nevada. 7 images stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker. 12 mm fisheye lens, f 2.8, ISO 8000, 25 sec. Why 7 images? Who knows, probably lost count, lol. Love that “red” Navajo Sandstone! Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!
Whispers of the Past by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook An old house in New Mexico. Lighting with Low Level Lighting with a Gaol Zero Micro Lantern. There are 2 exposures for focus stacking, one for the foreground and one for the sky, both at 14 mm. Sky shot at 15 sec., f 4.5, 15 sec., and ISO 10,000, foreground shot at 25 sec., f 4.5, and ISO 10,000. I shot the foreground at f 4.5 to get more depth of field and forgot to change it for the sky. Oops... Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!
Heart Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Stacked Image Foreground 9 images 17 mm, 30 sec., f 4.0, ISO 12,800 Sky 9 images 17 mm, 15 sec., ISO 12,800 Heart Arch or Window. Once upon a time on a small Mesa far, far away. 😊 I do not know if there is a real name for this small arch (I suspect not), but I’m going to call it Heart Arch. I saw a photo of this small arch on the internet which led me to see out the location, and fortunately I found it on my second day of searching. The Arch is located on the very edge of a cliff with a drop off of an estimated 100-150 feet, 30-50 m. Fortunately it could be lined up with the MW from the safe side of the arch, but unfortunately there was a lot of light pollution in this direction from a city about 100 miles, 160 km away. Still worked out ok though. There is focus stacking with a 9 image stack for the sky and an 9 image stack for the foreground, processed in Starry Landscape Stacker. Low Level Lighting done with a single Goal Zero Micro Lantern. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!
To Walk an Alien Land... by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook To Walk an Alien Land... He sat foot upon the barren rock of a new world, new to man. There was a residual atmosphere of Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide but little or no Oxygen. There was widespread evidence of erosion indicating a prior abundance of water but there was little surface water now. They had spent decades in deep sleep and a small exploratory force had recently been awakened by the autopilot to resupply within the nearest system. There was little need for anyone to leave the ship as all resupply functions could be performed remotely by robotics. Spacesuits were still primitive and rarely used, but there were always a few who savoured the experience of walking a new world... If you like photos like this then come and join us in a workshop in July in this location. For details see my website or DM me here at Flickr. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!
Eggshells and Cracked Eggs by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Blend (Focus Stack) Nikon 810A, f 2.8, 20 sec., 17 mm, Nikon 14-24 mm lens Cracked Eggs and Eggshells. This is taken in the Bisti Badlands in an area know as the "Cracked Eggs" or the "Alien Egg Factory". This was done in a workshop during the May New Moon. It is about a 1.5 mile hike from the parking lot. The badlands are a mesmerizing place at night with a very otherworldly feel. In this photo I was trying to capture a close view of a "cracked" egg along with the Milky Way. There is a close focus on the "eggshell" and a far focus on the sky. I am giving a Landscape Astrophotography Workshop in the New Mexico Badlands in July, two 3 day workshops, July 8-10 and July 11-13. If interested please contact me through my website. We will cover Landscape Astrophotography with classic night landscapes and then add people/figures into the compositions. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!
The Totem Pole, Monument Valley by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook The Totem Pole in Monument Valley. You need a local guide to visit Monument Valley at night. I can recommend Majestic Monument Valley tours if you are interested. I am planning something different and new that I hope will be a lot of fun. I am planning Fantasy Nightscape Workshops during the July new moon. There will be 2 three day workshops, in July 2018, July 8 through 10, and July 11 through 13. Photographer Eric Gail will also be an instructor. The workshop will be in the New Mexico Badlands. This area has multiple “Otherworldly” locations. This area gives us multiple sites that will be suitable for photographing fantasy scenes. This workshop will be different in that we will compose the photos with Fantasy Figures. It will be like Comic Com under the Milky Way. We will first capture the composition in a standard fashion without a person and then with one or more fantasy figures in the photo. We will provide costumes including an Astronaut (full spacesuit), Alien, Predator, Lord of the Rings (Aragorn-Strider), Conquistador, Star Wars (including Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan Kanobee, Jango Fett), Witches, and Wizards, Steampunk, and Medeival figures, Conquistador, etc. If that is not imaginative enough you can bring your own fantasy outfit! We will be shooting in an Otherworldly setting so costumes or figures that fit the setting would be best. Suggestions are welcomed! There will be lectures in the late afternoons for about 2 hours depending on group interest. We will cover and practice Landscape Astrophotography, Low Level Lighting, and Composition, in addition to planning, and scouting for Astrophotography. Additionally we will cover using smartphone apps such as TPE, Photopills, True DoF (Depth of Field) and Gaia GPS, and Google Earth, etc. These are instrumental in my planning and scouting. If you are interested please mail me here at Flickr. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!