After a long 8 months, ace Youtube channel Brusspup is back with another amazing optical illusion effect video. This time round the are demonstrating what’s known as the Schileren effect.
For those who’ve not seen this before, Enjoy. It is genuinely breathtaking.
Using a large concave mirror, like one found at the bottom of a telescope, small LED light source, razor blade and imaging device Brusspup reveals Continue reading
We are used to seeing photographs of Space on our social media feeds. Popularised this decade by Chris Hadfield and emulated by many more it’s hard to conceive a time existed before astronomer photography. So who was the first photographer in Space?
It was this man, Gherman Titov of Russia:
Titov was aboard Vostok 2 when it took off to journey beyond our atmosphere and make 17 orbits of Earth on the 6th August 1961. The mission, Continue reading
The photographic ‘faceswap’ is by far the most surreal byproduct of evolving digital photographic technology and its usefulness has yet to be proven. Once the go to tool for the likes of National Enquirer and Daily Sport to reproduce fake celebrity nudes its prominence on apps like SnapChat and MSQRD has pushed the weird AI tech mainstream. Now Dreambit hopes to achieve a useful tool rather than photographs that’ll confuse historians decades from now.
Imagine sitting in a hairdressers and being asked by your stylist your preferred cut, but instead of having to think on your seat, you’re presented with different options on the mirror in front of you. Curly hair, Continue reading
It’s probably safe to assume that most of us understand that Space observatories are built at high altitudes where viewing conditions are better because the atmosphere is less dense. Sharp-witted photographer Rob Ratkowski created this clever visual aid to show how altitude makes huge differences to imaging the skies.
Science explainers like Ratkowski often have to find unique ways to demonstrate certain scientific reasoning. Using photography and just his index finger Continue reading
SpaceX just shared a single exposure photograph of their Falcon 9 rocket taking off, leaving our atmosphere, reentry and landing.
That’s got to be a first.
The unusual photograph can only be achieved by performing an even more unusual rocket stunt. SpaceX have been trying, both successfully and unsuccessfully to launch a rocket into Space and return it to Earth for re-use. Today, as part of their ORBCOMMS-2 mission they managed the impossible. Even more sweeter is the fact their previous attempt earlier this year ended in disaster.
Congratulations Elon Musk on the incredible feat, but special props must go to the photographic genius who managed to compose and set up an image in which there was only one shot.
UPDATE:
It seems a LOT of people have managed to capture the same event. Musk just Tweeted out the best so far though:
Via SpaceX
The year book, staple souvenir of any American school kid born in the last century is the subject of a study undertaken by university researchers into the way our smile has changed over time.
The study analysed almost 38,000 unique frontal-facing portraits taken from American high school year books to compile an impressive snapshot of each decade since the year 1900.
Because of the photographic typology of the portraits contained within they are perfect for computational data Continue reading
Brace yourselves for a nerd boner of epic proportions. Scientists have managed to resolve enough pixels to directly image an exoplanet orbiting a star 60 light years away. It’s a six second video (shorter than a Vine even) but its contents give rise to a promise of what is in store for the future.
How far away is Beta Pictoris b exactly? Sixty light years distant is roughly Continue reading
Sit back and relax as we prepare to take a journey from the surface of the Sun and through our Solar system at the speed of light. You may want to pop the kettle on though because it’s going to take quite a long time. The Speed of light isn’t all that fast.
As every school child knows, the speed of light is finite, and although in practical situations it appears instantaneous we are really experiencing everything we see in the past. At just under a 300,000 km per second (that’s about 1.3 seconds to the Moon) the speed photons and other massless particles travel at is intensely slow on a cosmological scale. The incredibly talented Alphonse Swinehart had the wonderful idea of creating an animation showing the actual speed a photon of light travels at after it has left the surface of the Sun. Continue reading
With no less than 33 images attributed to him on Astronomy Picture of the Day Rogelio Bernal Andreo is one of the most respected astrophotographers on the planet. In fact, his images are so beautifully clear, it’s hard to believe he’s taking them from inside our atmosphere.
Recently this image of the constellation Orion has been receiving a growth spur and deservedly so as a meticulous amount of work was required to capture it. Amongst other things you can see the Witches Head nebula, the Flame nebula, the Horsehead nebula, Barnard’s Loop, the Running Man nebula and of course the Orion nebula. It is, as anyone in the Northern hemisphere will recognise an absolutely enormous part of the sky and to have such an incredible amount of detail there is breathtaking.
Of course you can’t see these gas clouds with the naked eye, although you would have some limited success with Orion’s nebula found in the middle of the sword with a pair of binoculars. To bring out more detail Rogelio made use of a narrow hydrogen alpha-filter and exposed for a total of 28 hours stitching together 32 images. Take a look at a detailed section of the top right revealing the ever spooky Witch Head nebula.
Rogelio began his astrophotography career like many of us; experimenting with is DSLR camera. Rogelio calls this his ‘introductory stage’ and has since moved on to dedicated CCD sensors to capture his images of the dark skies. Don’t worry though, ‘RBA’ as he’s known online still uses his DSLR to compose magnificent landscapes.
Take a look at just a small selection from his incredible portfolio starting with this stunning image of Simeis 147 and its surroundings. Continue reading
During a 17 minute video uploaded to NASA TV’s Youtube channel this week we were privy to the short, but explosive moment that can be seen from the Soyuz capsule window during reentry to the Earth’s atmosphere.
The terrifying ordeal that every astronaut prepares for is only visible in the video for a brief 10 second moment. The hypnotising loop of colours, sparks, reds and yellows wouldn’t look out of place as a scene in Interstellar, Chris Nolan’s new Space epic.
Gizmodo put together a short Gif so you can experience the moment on loop.
Phogotraphy 