Apollo 11 @ 500 FPS

The initial 30 seconds of the Apollo 11 launch in such high definition it takes 8 minutes and 43 seconds to show. Produced by Spacecraft Films, a company specializing in HD production of exactly what it sounds like. Good to enjoy with sound (to learn about the chemical reactions and physical forces at work) or muted (overlayed perhaps with Milieu's Colortone or Boards of Canada why not).

Via Petapixel, a phantastic digital photo blog (with a ton of HD vids).
And they got it from BoingBoing, the mother of us all.

NASA Space Colony Conceptual Art

Over a few summers in the 70s, NASA spent a lot of drafting table time figuring how a few 10,000 people could survive in the vacuum of space. According to the predicted schedule, this was due to happen about fifteen years ago. While we're all still waiting and hoping, making these was a good idea to pass the time.

 

See you in space [soon].

National Geographic's Infinite Photograph

In the past week, I've heard tell of a couple of particularly interesting and recent creations of long-beloved National Geographic. One is this so-called Infinite Photograph, which is an all too easy way to get lost in the natural world through the electronically mediated world. From the post on NG's excellent eco-friendly everyday living blog, Green Guide:

What makes up our world? Dive into this photo-mosaic portrait of the Earth to see it through the eyes of users like you. It's made up of hundreds of photos of the natural world, each submitted by users to My Shot. Move the yellow square over an area you would like to explore, click, and go. Double-click on an image to see more information about it. Keep clicking—and diving deeper into the Infinite Photograph—to get a truly boundless picture of Earth.

Go figure that my favorite finding so far this is tornado that was taken in the Oklahoma panhandle. Despite being given a "truly boundless picture of Earth", I still get a little wistful for home on occasion.


Another good, but expensive, idea is this hard drive that you can buy that is preloaded with every edition of National Geographic ever. That's 120 years worth of material retouched and positively dripping with high definition. Rediscover every printed page, every article and advertisement, and most importantly, the thousands of photographs — from 1888 through 2008. If you're into making collages in Photoshop, or you would just like enough reading material for the rest of your natural life, this is pretty much the ultimate.

Galactic Center Composite Proves Educational and Psychedelic

Via the Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Blue and violet represent the X-ray observations of Chandra. X-rays are emitted by gas heated to millions of degrees by stellar explosions and by outflows from the supermassive black hole in the galaxy's center. The bright blue blob on the left side of the full field image is emission from a double star system containing either a neutron star or a black hole.

Yellow areas represent the near-infrared of Hubble. They outline the energetic regions where stars are being born as well as reveal hundreds of thousands of stars.

And red represents the infrared observations of Spitzer. The radiation and winds from stars create glowing dust clouds that exhibit complex structures from compact, spherical globules to long, stringy filaments.

Collectively they give us the most dramatically trippy window into the heart of the milky way that has ever been captured.

The Meticulous Photo Work of JF Rauzier

"Bibliothèque Idéale"
Artist: Jean François Rauzier

One of many hyperphotos hand patched in photoshop.

Ideal Cities in amazing detail (2.5 Gigapixels or so).

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captures quite a strange close-up

The MRO really gets around Mars. On board this baby is the HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which by the looks of it is one hell of a successful experiment (resolution quality gets measured in inches per pixel). Soon NASA is taking suggestions from the general public on areas of Mars to be shot next. Have your selections ready, my nerd brethren.

Photos from Boston.com
New Images from HiRISE's developers at their blog
NASA's project page
HiRISE on wikipedia
Google Mars

Bullet strikes at 1,000,000 fps

Don't be too surprised if you're sucked into watching the full ten minutes. As the types of bullets change, so do the materials being shot. Mesmerizing - I've never felt so calmed by the sight of bullets.