Author Archives: Chompsky

Last week’s full moon or Buck Moon (captured during its partial eclipse by Cristian Fattinnanzi) was very full. How full, you ask?

…it fell almost exactly in a line with the Sun and the Earth. When that happens the Earth casts its shadow onto the Moon. The circularity of the Earth’s shadow on the Moon was commented on by Aristotle and so has been noticed since at least the 4th century BC. What’s new is humanity’s ability to record this shadow with such high dynamic range (HDR).

The featured HDR composite of last week’s partial lunar eclipse combines 15 images and includes an exposure as short as 1/400th of a second — so as not to overexpose the brightest part — and an exposure that lasted five seconds — to bring up the dimmest part. This dimmest part — inside Earth’s umbra — is not completely dark because some light is refracted through the Earth’s atmosphereonto the Moon. A total lunar eclipse will occur next in 2021 May.

Giant image here.

UPDATE: a deliciously moony mashup from 2013.

apod

Winners (and runners up) in the 2019 Audubon Photography Awards.

From top: a camouflaged owl by Shari McCollough; two Great Blue Herons by Melissa Rowell; Kevin Ebi’s shot of a Bald eagle and a fox battling for possession of a rabbit (see how it all turned out here) and the Grand Prize Winner – a red-winged blackbird ‘blowing smoke rings’ by Katherine Swoboda, who explains:

I visit this park near my home to photograph blackbirds on cold mornings, often aiming to capture the “smoke rings” that form from their breath as they sing out. On this occasion, I arrived early on a frigid day and heard the cry of the blackbirds all around the boardwalk. This particular bird was very vociferous, singing long and hard. I looked to set it against the dark background of the forest, shooting to the east as the sun rose over the trees, backlighting the vapour.

In fairness…

kottke

A new music video from animator Cyriak Harris, who’s taken a random bit of vintage footage (wherein an old man attempts to eat breakfast in the middle of the road), then run it through the nightmare-o-tron a few times, as is his wont.

Naturally, you’ll have seen his ‘Like And Subscribe’ video for Adam Buxton’s podcast.

Previously: Dance Like No Body’s Watching

awesomer

Behold: The BMW X Krautmotors Bauhaus 100 F850 GS – a collaboration celebrating 100 years of the 20th century’s most influential design school.

To wit: a stylistic update of the classic 1969 BMW /5 with the slimline engine from the BMW F 850 GS adventure bike all set in a frame designed using Bauhaus principles of handcrafted geometric minimalism.

The bike is fully functional but really only intended as an exhibition piece.

uncrate