Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Take a moment to remember how you drew the sun when you were little. I would often add a smiling face to it, so I was absolutely thrilled to see NASA’s latest photo of the “smiling” sun.
Some say it looks like Mr. Stay-Puft from Ghostbusters, I see it as a friendly smiling face… And of course, NASA explains in a way more scientific manner what it is that we see here.
U.S. National Science Foundation has released the inaugural photos of its Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. These are the first images of the chromosphere the area of the chromosphere, the area of the Sun’s atmosphere above the surface. They take you as close to the sun as you can get, and needless to say – they’re absolutely stunning.
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy is one of those people whose each and every photo always makes me go “wow!” After buying his first telescope only five years ago, he rapidly grew to become a master astrophotographer, getting better and better with every new image.
But even while he was still fairly new to astrophotography, Andrew captured a photo that will knock your socks off. He recently shared one of his very first astrophotos showing two of the Sun’s atmospheres, including the “corona” – the one we normally only see during an eclipse. Blending it with his later photo, he created a piece of art that’s a wonderful homage to the first five years of his astrophotography journey.
When I was little, I would always color the sun yellow in my drawings and I can bet you did as well. While it’s actually white, we can see it in many different hues here on Earth.
Italian photographer Marcella Pace captured all of these colors that we can observe through our eyes and our cameras. They cover many warm hues of orange, crimson, and every child’s favorite: yellow. But you’ll also see it in an unexpected cold shade of blue. Marcella shared with us her amazing composite Colors of the Sun and told us a bit about how she made it.
An 83 megapixel image of the sun has been captured by the Solar Obiter in a joint project by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. The images were taken in March when the when the spacecraft was crossing directly between the Earth and Sun and show unprecedented detail.
The image was taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and is the highest resolution image ever taken of the Sun’s full disc and outer atmosphere, the corona.
The ISS orbits the Earth every 90 minutes at the speed of 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour. On top of that, it’s very rare to see it during the day. So, capturing it in daylight is pretty tricky and requires some serious planning and preparation.
Chinese photographer Wang Letian captured the ISS at the right place and at the right time, and his photo even became NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for 11 April. No wonder, as it shows the ISS passing in front of the very active sun, making the viewer’s jaw drop in awe. We chatted with Letian a bit about his image and how he took it, and he kindly shared some backstory and the image itself with DIYP.
Aurora borealis or northern light is usually visible in the areas close to the center of the Arctic Circle. However, due to the recent solar storm, you may be able to see it as far south as New York! The geomagnetic storm has pushed the aurora closer to the south, so you don’t have to travel as far to the north to capture it in your photos.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 with a goal to explore our Sun. And now, three years later, the probe has reached its destination and “touched” the sun, getting closer to it than any space probe before. Parker entered the Sun’s corona, and as if it wasn’t impressive enough – it also sent back the first photos from out there.
If you’re a regular reader of DIYP or you’re an avid astrophotographer then the name Andrew McCarthy should be familiar to you. We’ve featured him numerous times, you’d think we’d be getting bored by now. But no, every single time his work just keeps getting better and better! And he’s really outdone himself with his latest set of images that show the sun in incredible detail with no less than a 150,000 image composite!
Solarcan is back with a new product, the solarcan.co.uk/PUCK. It’s a solar camera that comes in a very tiny tin package to let you shoot the sun’s path through the sky over many weeks or months. It’s much smaller than their original 16oz version, which you can see in action here when Matthew Vandeputte used one to create a 10 million second exposure (just under 4 months).
The new Solarcan Puck is also a pinhole camera and produces up to three total exposures. Each exposure is protected from light by a cover until you’re ready to shoot it. You also get a sticky mount and a couple of cable ties for attaching it to where you want to shoot from. An overview video has been posted by the company showing how it’s made up and what you get inside.
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