The night sky and the infamous sliding stones of Racetrack Playa Lakebed in Death Valley. Credit and copyright: Gavin Heffernan/Sunchaser Pictures.
Have you ever dreamed of camping out under the dark skies of Death Valley? Dream no more: you can enjoy this virtual experience thanks to Gavin Heffernan and his Sunchaser Pictures crew. This magnificent new timelapse video includes some insane star trails, the beautiful Milky Way, and an incredible pink desert aurora!
“As you can see, Death Valley is a crazy place to shoot at,” Gavin said via email to Universe Today, “as the horizon is so strangely uneven/malleable. I don’t know if the valley was cut by water or underground magma, but it’s almost impossible to find a straight horizon.” See some great images from their video, below:
Gavin said he and his team tried out some new timelapse techniques, like moonpainting the foreground landscapes (0:53 — 1:20), and also some experiments merging regular timelapse footage with star trails — “a technique we’ve been calling Starscaping (1:07:1:33)” he said. “If it has an actual name, let us know! đ Star Trails shot at 25 sec exposures. No special effects used, just the natural rotation of the earth’s axis. Photography Merging: STARSTAX. Used two Canon EOS 5Dmkii, with a 24mm/1.4 lens & 28mm/1.8.”
A pink aurora seen in Death Valley. Credit and copyright: Gavin Heffernan/Sunchaser Pictures.
Every Sunday night we connect up a bunch of telescopes into a live Google+ Hangout and showcase the night sky. In addition to a team of astronomers and their scopes, we usually have a few PhD astronomers on hand to explain the objects that we’re looking at. Each episode typically lasts about an hour and we’re able to see a few dozen objects. If you want to get the gist of what a Virtual Star Party looks like, check out this 60-second version put together by my co-host, Scott Lewis.
I’m not sure if Scott will have the energy to do these every week, but I love how this worked out.
This year, there have been some epic auroral displays, and astrophotographer Ole C. Salomonsen has just released this new video which includes real-time recordings of these âpolar spirits.â
âMy main focus is on getting the auroras [to] show as close as possible to real-time speed given the time available in a short video,â Salomonsen wrote on Vimeo. âIn the film I have tried to show the slower majestic dancing lights, as well as the more faster, dramatic and abstract shows, and finally the auroras in combination with city lights and urban elements.â
Simply stunning, and if you watch closely on the opening sequence you can actually see some whales breaching out in the fjord!
Here’s one bit of NASA outreach that won’t be affected by suspensions or sequesters: an edited version of “We Are The Explorers,” a video highlighting the past successes and future goals of the space administration — created by NASA and featuring an inspiring narration by Peter “Optimus Prime” Cullen — will be screened in several major U.S. cities during the premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness thanks to an overwhelmingly successful crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo.com.
Now that the initial goal of $33,000 has been met and the 30-second ad spot can be purchased, the team responsible for the campaign (Aerospace Industries Association of America) will use any funds donated during the next 29 days to reach its next target: getting the ad in at least one theater in every state in America for two weeks. In order for that to happen, a grand total of $94,000 will need to be reached.
Want to help make it so? Find out more about how you can contribute:
According to the Indiegogo campaign page, “If we raise our funding total to $94,000, students, young people, and the general public will see this video from coast to coast. This new goal will expand our reach from 59 movie theater screens to 750 screens!”
That means a lot more chances that the spot will run at the theater where you go to see the new Star Trek film when it comes out on May 17. (Because you know you’re going to go see it, let’s be honest. It’s Star Trek.)
And because it’s Indiegogo you’ll get a “perk” depending on the amount you contribute, ranging from digital copies of the final spot to DVD copies of the excellent HBO series “From Earth to the Moon” (while supplies last.) Because the initial goal has been met, some perks are already sold out… but then, contributing to something as important as space exploration isn’t about the stuff you get, it’s about the message you can give.
“This is more than a fundraiser, it’s a demonstration of support for space exploration programs. By donating to this campaign, you’re making a very powerful statement about the widespread enthusiam that exists for space programs. A crowdfunding campaign is the best vehicle to deliver this message. By reaching our goal, we not only enable a first-of-its-kind ad campaign, we also demonstrate that countless people support a strong space program that’s in development.”
You can contribute here, and be sure to spread the word too. That way, when you’re looking at the video on the big screen, when you see them putting Al Shepard’s gloves on, when you see the fiery exhaust of the Saturn rocket and you hear Cullen’s voice rumble “we are the explorers,” you can know that you helped make it happen — and that somewhere in that same theater a young mind may very well be inspired to continue the exploration.
Maybe that mind might even be be your own.
“Our next destination awaits. We don’t know what new discoveries lie ahead, but this is the very reason we must go.“
This crowdfunding campaign is the work of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) of America. This campaign is not endorsed by NASA nor is it conducted at their direction or request. Note: by donating you acknowledge that donations are not tax deductible.
Just a few of ALMA's 66 giant radio telescopes (NRAO)
Last month a dozen journalists from around North America were guests of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and got to take a trip to the Atacama Desert in Chile to attend the inauguration of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observatory — ALMA, for short.
It was, in no uncertain terms, a radio astronomer’s paradise.
Join one radio astronomer, Dr. Nicole Gugliucci, on her trip to the 5100-meter-high Chajnantor Plateau to visit the ALMA sites in this video, also featuring NRAO’s Tania Burchell, John Stoke, Charles Blue and the Planetary Society’s Mat Kaplan.
ALMA will open a new window on celestial origins, capturing never-before seen details about the very first stars and galaxies in the Universe, probing the heart of our galaxy, and directly imaging the formation of planets. It is the largest leap in telescope technology since Galileo first aimed a lens on the Universe.
How old is the Earth, how long did it take for life to appear, and how long would it take for your hair to grow to the Moon? Find out in this video from MinuteEarth (a new project by MinutePhysics’ Henry Reich):
(Because you always wanted to know how long it would take for your hair to grow to the Moon — admit it.)
And be sure to check out MinuteEarth’s newest video Why Are Leaves Green?Part 1 and Part 2.
If you’re reading this then you probably love space exploration, and if you love space exploration then you know how awesome the MESSENGER mission is — the incredibly successful venture by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington to orbit and study the first rock from the Sun in unprecedented detail. Since entering orbit around Mercury on March 18, 2011, MESSENGER has mapped nearly 100% of the planet’s surface, found unique landforms called hollows residing in many of its craters, and even discovered evidence of water ice at its poles! That’s a lot to get accomplished in just two years!
The video above, assembled by Mark ‘Indy’ Kochte, is a tribute to the many impressive achievements of the MESSENGER mission, featuring orbital animations (love that MESSENGER shimmy!), surface photos, and the approach to the planet. Enjoy!
Images and animation stills courtesy NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington. Music: “Mercury Ridge” by Simon Wilkinson. Video creation and time-lapse animations by Mark ‘Indy’ Kochte.
In this new video from Big Think, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson says he’s almost embarrassed for our species that it takes a warning shot across our bow before legislators take seriously the advice they’ve been receiving from astronomers about getting serious about asteroid detection and deflection; that it’s a matter of when not if Earth will get smacked by an asteroid. “But it took an actual meteor over Russia exploding with 25 times the power of the atom bomb in Hiroshima to convince people that maybe we should start doing something about it.”
How does the mind work? What is reality? Self-professed wonder junkie Jason Silva has a new video, which debuted this weekend at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. Hit âplayâ and get ready for a fast ride!
Actor Russell Crowe made some waves this week when he claimed to have captured photos of a UFO outside the window of his office in Australia. It turns out it really was a UFO…. an Unidentified Floating Object, which has now been identified. Crowe’s office sits on a pier in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, and via Twitter, Crowe said that he and a friend set up camera to capture fruit bats flying over the Gardens. “Canon 5D, no flash, can’t be lense (sic) flare because it moves, camera is fixed,” and “The camera is on a balcony – not behind glass.”
But ParaBreakdown’s Phil Poling has now provided a breakdown of why Crowe’s UFO is most likely to be a series of long-exposure photos of a … wait for it … passing sailboat with a high mast.
