This Hornet was found dead in front of the living room window one morning. Glad it didn’t lose its temper while we were sitting down watching the box! The wings on this one are 25mm (1-inch) long to give you an idea of scale – these are BIG beasties. Far too big to go under the microscope even at the lowest magnification, this subject needed a different technique. So out came the Canon 100mm macro lens and I manually focussed from the top to the bottom of the subject taking frames as I moved down in focus. Altogether 18-frames were taken and I stacked them together using the truly remarkable Helicon Focus software. Pretty acceptable result though I could take a little more care over the illumination 🙂
The original of this image was created using 23 overlapping frames (Canon 5D MkII and 50mm prime lens) giving a 13739 x 7896 pixel image 🙂 Photoshop struggled with the 1Gb file.
Apparently this image was shown on last night’s (26/05/2011) Meridian weather – but I missed it 🙁
Many of you will be familiar with the 2-dimensional Mandelbrot set – the most common fractal. However, it was not until recently that a 3-dimensional analogue was created after many years of blood sweat and tears.
This incredible object is the 3-D Mandelbulb and like the Mandelbrot set you can zoom into this structure to discover new and exciting “worlds”.
This will be the last one of these for a while – too much of a good thing and all that. This 4-minute crossing was captured at 9:30 p.m. on 25th April 2011 using the Canon 5D and the 15mm fisheye lens. ISO 100, f#8 and “bulb” exposure. Do continue looking up for the ISS however, it will be good (skies permitting) at least up until 5th May 2011.
I had watched the earlier 9:04 p.m. crossing of the ISS and this lasted nearly 5-minutes at almost the same elevation as the 10:39 p.m. crossing. So why was the 9:04 p.m. crossing 5-minutes long and the 10:39 p.m. crossing only 3-minutes long? The accompanying image tells the story. At 10:39 p.m. the Sun has set further, so the ISS is illuminated for less of its course across the sky. As you can see in the image – it barely makes Ursa Major before its lights out – fascinating!
Passing almost directly overhead (83 degees) on 22nd April 2011 were the automated Russian cargo vehicle Progress 41P and the International Space Station. Progress 41P first appeared in the West at 9:48 p.m. followed just one minute later by the International Space Station (ISS). Both disappeared from view in the ENE at an elevation of 25 degrees. In this image both tracks are overlaid as they were both in the same orbit. It was a fantastic sight with just a layer of thin high cloud preventing perfection (and preventing me from imaging).
where pure science meets art
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