Showing posts with label Picture of the Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Picture of the Day. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

24HR view of the Sky


Photographer Chris Kotsiopoulos; Chris’ Website
Summary Author: Chris Kotsiopoulos
 
After wondering for some time whether it was possible to image the sky from one morning to the next where he lives in Athens Greece, Chris decided to give it a try.

After hours of planning and preparation, and a full day of shooting, the image above is the result of this labour of love.

It took about 12 hours to pull together and process a single image that included over 500 star trails, 35 shots of the Sun and 25 landscape pictures.

The plan was to make the image on the day of the solstice (December 21) when the Sun’s stay in the sky was short (in the Northern Hemisphere) and the star trail durations were long.

Of course, trying to find clear weather for a given 24-hour period is not an easy chore. However, he was very patient, and the weather eventually cooperated (on December 30-31, 2010).

He had to stay at the same place for approximately 30 hours. In addition, he was on location 2-3 hours before sunrise to make the preparations and conduct some test shooting.

He also needed to stay an extra 2-3 hours the second day to shoot part of the Sun's sequence, which was lost the first morning due to clouds.

Chris chose Sounion (Temple of Poseidon) as the setting for this project. Click on image to see labels.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Astronomy Picture of the Day: SOFIA and Jupiter


Astronomy Picture of the Day

Jupiter from the Stratosphere
Credit: Infrared - NASA, USRA, DSI, Cornell Univ. / Visible - Anthony Wesley

Explanation: SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, captured its "first light" images on May 26, from an altitude of 35,000 feet.

While flying above most of planet Earth's infrared-absorbing water vapor, SOFIA's premier infrared views of the cosmos included this remarkable false-color image (right panel) of Jupiter. For comparison, on the left is a recent, ground-based visible light image.

Both show our solar system's ruling gas giant without its dark southern equatorial belt (normally seen in the upper hemisphere in this orientation). That familiar feature faded from view early in May. But the bright white stripe in SOFIA's image is a region of Jupiter's clouds transparent to infrared light, offering a glimpse below the cloud tops.