Battlestar Photoshopica: Otto Travels to Pluto

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Our “Astro Art” feature needs a catchier name, and frankly we need more people to read this feature or it will be toast. So here’s the new name: Battlestar Photoshopica, suggested by UT reader Dave Finton. And spread the word about these very cool posts which showcase our readers’ prowess with digital image editing software. Here’s this week’s edition, which is probably the cutest image we’ve ever received. This is Otto the Dachshund, created by Ralph Petrozello. Otto is on his way to Pluto. Really. This image was chosen by The Planetary Society to be part of the New Horizons Digital Time Capsule, on board the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Pluto. The time capsule consists of photographs of things in 2006 that people expect will be transformed by 2015, when the spacecraft arrives at Pluto. Only fifty photos were selected, and this is one of them.

Ralph told us more about this image:

“I took a photo of my Dachshund, Otto, reflected in a car’s rear view mirror while he was looking out the window with his sun glasses on. (…he really wore them,) Ralph said. “I replaced the background of the photo with the Hubble Deep Field image, and the reflection in his sun glasses so it appeared as though he was traveling through space towards Pluto, looking out towards the “Andromeda Galaxy” going by. The photo also captured the words on the mirror, “Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear”…which Otto was to me.”

“Otto is gone now, …but I know his memory will live on.”

Ralph is a member of the I forgot to mention that I am also a member of the San Diego Astronomy Association.

For more info on the New Horizons Digital Time Capsule, see the Planetary Society’s website.