GIF Of Pluto Shows How Camera Technology Has Improved Over The Last 85 Years
Jul 22, 2015
Tiffany Mueller
Tiffany Mueller is a photographer and content strategist based in Hawi, Hawaii. Her work has been shared by top publications like The New York Times, Adobe, and others.
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NASA just released this sweet GIF of Pluto that uses photos taken between 1930 through 2015. The first photo (courtesy of Lowell Observatory Archives) was taken by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 when the planet was first discovered. NASA digitally zoomed in on the image for the GIF. The following images were all taken form NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope between 1990 and 2014. The only exception being the last image in the series, which was snapped from the New Horizons spacecraft this year.
Because Pluto sits anywhere from 2.66 billion miles (4.28 billion km) to 4.67 billion miles (7.5 billion kilometers) away from earth depending on it’s orbit, it has been one of the most difficult planets to photograph. As the animation cycles through the 13 images it’s comprised of, it’s impossible not to notice how much improved camera technology has become. Not that it’s unexpected, but seeing the evolution animated like this is pretty cool.
The final image has been making it’s way into the headlines lately due the historically high quality images New Horizon’s spacecraft was able to take of the mysterious planet. New Horizons is equipped with three cameras, one of which is named Ralph. Ralph has a focal length of Focal Length: 657.5 mm and shoots at f 8.7.
For an complete shot list of the GIF, head on over to NASA’s website, where the animation was originally shared.
[ via This Is Colossal ]
Tiffany Mueller
Tiffany Mueller is a photographer and content strategist based in Hawi, Hawaii. Her work has been shared by top publications like The New York Times, Adobe, and others.
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4 responses to “GIF Of Pluto Shows How Camera Technology Has Improved Over The Last 85 Years”
The article does not make much sense, and is misleading.
The new photos of Pluto look good and are hi-res mainly because NASA sent the New Horizons spacecraft towards Pluto to take photos up close, not so much because of the camera technology. Not saying that the camera tech did not contribute, but the main reason is that they actually got close to Pluto.
The first 6 photos were taken from Earth, the rest are from the probe, and are progressively better as the probe gets closer to Pluto.
The article does not make much sense, and is misleading.
The new photos of Pluto look good and are hi-res mainly because NASA sent the New Horizons spacecraft towards Pluto to take photos up close, not so much because of the camera technology. Not saying that the camera tech did not contribute, but the main reason is that they actually got close to Pluto.
The first five photos were taken from Earth, the rest are from the probe, and are progressively better as the probe gets closer to Pluto.
It actually shows that if you get closer to an object you can get a more accurate image of it.
Yeah, have to agree with the other commenters here… Our camera tech has certainly improved, but the images actually switch from Hubble to New Horizons about halfway through the animation. The impressive thing this GIF shows is our ability to fly a camera 3 billion miles and beam the photos back.