Another star map:
I was thinking, "Hey! that's a pretty good picture of M31!" because that is about the best I've seen it through binoculars or a telescope. It took quite a bit of post processing to bring out the detail and suppress the noise (and it is suppressed), so I was feeling pretty good about the results of my digital astrophotography. (This is a 5 second exposure, at f2.8, using ISO 1600, through a 35mm f/2 Nikkor, on the D100, on a regular tripod. Horizontal axis is declination, vertical is right ascention.)
Then I saw this picture by Bobby Middleton which combines several hours of film exposure and requires advanced darkroom image processing as well as digital post processing. Whew. Now I'm impressed.
Added: I'm not certain the star I've indicated as R in the picture, is in fact R-Andromedae. R is a variable spectrum star that shows zirconium oxide at maximum and titanium oxide at minimum. Strange.
It has a 400+ day period, so I'll try to photograph it again next summer and compare brightness (and spectrum if I can get it.)
Also: The irregular galaxy, ngc 147, a companion to M31, is marked because I've never observed it before, and I wanted to add it to my list.
I saw this sign somewhere, it means geiger-counters prohibited. I'm trying to think of where such a sign would be appropriate, maybe at a uranium processing plant in Grants, New Mexico, so as not to make the workers nervous.
Or how about at the Al Queda home office Christmas party. You wouldn't want to give away the gift exchange.
A couple of artists I like:
David Hockney:
I saw this picture, Pear Blossom Highway, a long, long time ago, and it has stuck with me ever since. It's a major influence on the way I see art. It's neither a photograph, nor a painting. Or maybe it's both.
Hockney wrote a book on perspective in painting that, once I finish any of the books I'm reading now, I'll start reading. Another artist I like is Josh Agile:
Yep. He goes by the middle four letters of his name, Shag, and his campy, spooky - almost Warner-Brothers cartoonish paintings are emotionaly evocative, surrealistic social-scapes. And funny. I first saw his work about two years ago at the La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles.
These two artists are close to reaching household name status. I don't know why I'm connecting them, but remember, you heard it here first.
