Tag Archives: Observatories

“The Space Project” by Vincent Fournier

September 27th, 2014 | Space
Hydrolab Training, I.S.S., Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center [GCTC], Star City, Zvyozdny gorodok, Russia, 2007.

Hydrolab Training, I.S.S., Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center [GCTC], Star City, Zvyozdny gorodok, Russia, 2007.

The Space Project Vincent Fournier 4

Class Room, Arianespace, Guiana Space Center [CGS], Kourou, French Guiana, 200

“The Space Project” is an incredible series of photographs by Vincent Fournier, who hails from the little known country of Burkina Faso in West Africa. Vincent traveled around the world to capture space training facilities which were left mostly in a state of abandonment. You may have noticed that most countries seem to have shifted their interests away from manned space programs in recent years. After the lunar landing on July 20th, 1969, we just haven’t collectively wanted to exhaust the resources need to journey to Mars and beyond…

These photographs capture some of the beautifully faded glory of space programs around the world. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Apollo Control Room, John F. Kennedy Space Center [NASA], Florida, U.S.A., 2011.

Apollo Control Room, John F. Kennedy Space Center [NASA], Florida, U.S.A., 2011.

Ergol #4, S1B clean room, Arianespace, Guiana Space Center [CGS], Kourou, French Guiana, 2011

Ergol #4, S1B clean room, Arianespace, Guiana Space Center [CGS], Kourou, French Guiana, 2011

Space Helmet, Extravehicular Visor Assembly, John F. Kennedy Space Center [NASA], Florida, U.S.A., 2011

Space Helmet, Extravehicular Visor Assembly, John F. Kennedy Space Center [NASA], Florida, U.S.A., 2011

Mars Desert Research Station #2 [MDRS], Mars Society, San Rafael Swell, Utah, U.S.A., 2008

Mars Desert Research Station #2 [MDRS], Mars Society, San Rafael Swell, Utah, U.S.A., 2008

Mars Desert Research Station #1 [MDRS], Mars Society, San Rafael Swell, Utah, U.S.A., 2008

Mars Desert Research Station #1 [MDRS], Mars Society, San Rafael Swell, Utah, U.S.A., 2008

Plateau de Bure Observatory #3 [IRAM], Grenoble, F 78 French Alps, 2006

Plateau de Bure Observatory #3 [IRAM], Grenoble, F 78 French Alps, 2006

There are many more gems from “The Space Project” that you can find at Vincent’s website, here. I think he may be my new favorite photographer. If you are in Amsterdam before October 31st, definitely check it out.

-RSB

The Mauna Kea Heavens Timelapse – Lasers

October 9th, 2013 | Space

Mauna Kea Heavens Timelapse

Wow! This is one of the coolest time-lapse videos I’ve ever seen. Sean Goebel, an astronomy graduate student, ascended the 14,000 ft summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii to capture the observatories at work. The footage was filmed over three nights last April, and yes, the lasers are real.

So what do the lasers do?

They function on the principle of adaptive optics. In brief, they are extremely powerful 15-40 watt lasers (1000+ times more powerful than your laser pointer) that track atmospheric turbulence. Winds in the atmosphere can blur out the fine detail of the stars (the reason stars twinkle), and the telescope can use the information from the lasers to make slight adjustments to cancel out the blurring. This ultimately creates a better image of the sky.

What kind of gear was used?

Straight from Sean:

“I shot the montage on a Canon 5D Mk. II and an old-as-dinosaurs Rebel XT. I’m trying to run the XT into the ground (the shutter is rated for 50,000 photos and I’ve taken about 70,000), but it refuses to die, so I keep using it. When the shutter dies, I plan to fill the mirror box with dirt, plant a cactus in it, and then buy an actually decent second body. Anyway, the 5D II was usually paired with either a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 or a Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8, and the Rebel XT was usually used with a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. Additionally, a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Bower 35mm f/1.4, and a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 were each used for one scene. I also used a home-built rotary table to create camera motion in some of the scenes. My timelapse dolly lives in a closet in California, so it wasn’t used in this montage.”

mauna kea timelapse setup

I shot all my images in RAW format (yep, that’s a lot of space). Images were edited in Adobe Camera Raw (part of the Photoshop suite). To add adjustable crops/white balance/etc., I ran the images through a moderately buggy program called LRTimelapse. Images were resized to 1080p in Photoshop and saved as jpgs. A few sequences were run through Virtual Dub with MSU Deflicker (for deflickering) or After Effects (for stabilization). The final video was edited together in Adobe Premiere.”

Well I’m certainly impressed!

Find still shots and more information at Sean’s site.

-RSB