Scientific Artist

http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure

Find a quiet 20-minutes to sit down and absorb these words.

First the positive.  90 pages of the new book completed, estimated total 250 pages.

Now the negative.  All my (5) observatory computers are XP-based machines as there are still plenty of astronomy bits running on ancient software.  As you know Microsoft no longer supports XP, this is apparently no problem for the 4 Intel machines – but a big problem for the Athlon which has now kindly locked me out.  Thank you very much Microsoft – like I need these unnecessary problems on top of trying to maintain a parallel imaging array.

This is a possible front cover for the new photography book I am currently writing:

Cybele, with Bluebonnets – just read it!

I had discussions with a book publisher yesterday to see how he felt about a “photography book” project I have been mulling over for around 2 or 3 years now.  I am pleased to say that he thought it was a good idea, so now the hard graft begins of putting it all together.  This is a “specialist” book, so it’s not about going out and taking snaps with your new DSLR, it includes Deep-Sky imaging, photomicroscopy, macrophotography, high-speed photography, pinhole camera photography, special effects photography like “Little Planet” images, and there is even an Appendix on Computer Generated Imagery.  I estimate this to be around 250 pages long, coffee-table book size (in landscape format) and printed to an extremely high quality to bring out the best in the images.  Current estimate for draft completion – around September/October this year.  We’re off!!

Sirius “Louey”, honorary human 18th May 2006 – 5th March 2014, far too soon

This is a Hyperstar III image of the recent supernova in galaxy M82.

15 subs at 4-minutes per sub taken on January 25th 2014 during a short break between all the clouds and rain.

Where are the peer-reviewed Journal papers in a quality publication to back up your claims?

But will we get 10-minutes of clear sky to image it?

Got today’s Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) http://epod.usra.edu/ with the recent “12 brightest stars” montage I put together.

Thank you Jim at EPOD for continuing to publish my work