.......Mission Control:
Year 2015 mid July
Just a few months ago, beacons began to signal the awakening of deep space probe 'New Horizons' from hibernation. Dispatched in 2006, New Horizons has now traveled over 3 billion miles in the course of nine years. Cruising through the Kuiper Belt (aka Kuyper), Pluto is now within view. As it approaches the Ice Dwarf, hydrazine thrusters fire, spinning the probe into position. The sun is now only a bright star in the vast darkness of space. The seven instruments which make up the spacecrafts payload begin system checks as it approaches its flyby of Pluto and Charon (Pluto's Moon). Now cruising on the very outer fringes of our solar system, nobody knows what mysteries and discoveries New Horizons will document. Back at mission control, hearts race and palms sweat as their craft begins its approach. A new frontier is about to be explored.
The cameras aboard New Horizons ready themselves. Lorri - short for Long Range Reconnaissance Imager- which consists of the highest spatial resolution on board, begins to fire away. This camera was carefully installed by scientist and engineer Eva McDermott. Mission control now begins to stream data from its ambassador ship.
Pluto is now right in front of our eyes. The surface temperatures now arrive measuring a staggering minus 400 degrees F (-240 C). The first image now displays at mission control.
The image you see above is an actual shot of the surface of Pluto. The image features are resolved at nearly 100 meters across. What you see is a planet completely covered with ice. Much of the surface is frozen nitrogen, methane and water with traces of carbon monoxide. The dark areas of the image represent rifts and valleys which confirms elevation on the planet. The brighter bluish colors are methane gases evaporating from the surface and tossed around by sublimation winds which will redeposit in the form of frost. We now have confirmation of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere.
In the hours ahead more discoveries will be made, but for now the image is known as the "Sapphire Rift".
Some fiction and non-fiction. All information was extracted from [url]http://pluto.jhuapl.edu[url]
Thanks for your time and comments
Canon 40D
70mm
no filters
25 sec. @ f 14
iso 320
Comments
45 commentsHope you like it too.
Special torch light painting was used to illuminate the ice. Processing was minimal as I recorded decent DR here. Two image blend for dof and LR2 minimal work and finished up in PS4.
Thanks again
Guy
Nice story and great image. It looks like ET on the right half of the thumbnail. Great abstract.
Actually, I wish I had the imagination to come up with something like that, and articulate the thoughts the way you did. I like the image a lot too. Nice blues, and ilumination.
Chris
Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI.
Beautiful work!
--P
I'd personally be really interested in seeing the original file on this one as that glow is well...awfully glowy.
Regardless, creative story and a unique photograph. Looks like you put a lot of thought and work into it.
Just having a liitle fun with the image. I got caught up reading about the mission and it really fascinated me. It's a true mission pretty amazing stuff if you thnk about it
Nicolaus I sure will. I am checking in from work so it won't be until a little later. I'll post up a screenshot or raw jpg or whatever. This is pretty darn close but of course needed some boost from the raw flatness
Sorry, this is captured in a creek. Logs and forest debris jam up forcing the water through tight areas. This particular scene was caught from water flowing under and dripping off a log. On the third day it slowly began to melt giving the ice a very transparent glassy surface
This is really beautifiul, I don't know how you find this kind of images but you are really succesful with them!
I'm thinking this can be awesome in a retro-illuminated glass print or is that too cheesy?
Wonderful photo!
As many of you know raw is just that, raw. This particular image didn't need any embellishments.
Thanks again
Wayne
What fantastic ice abstract. Of course you gotta love the story perhaps even more! Although to be perfectly honest, Pluto didn't come to mind. What did was a psychedelic dance floor from the late 60's.... and somebody in the basement blowing some kind of smoke....
Even without our imaginations... this is outstanding.
Lon
- Dan.
Really impressive abstract image. I am sure it would make a wonderful large print.
What I'm referring to in your image is the really bright blues beneath the ice. Never seen anything quite like that in my life and I was curious as to how it looked before you did your editing. No worries though. A very artistic and creative image and obviously well received by all here.
Ha ha! guess it took me out there or maybe I already was.. .
Gary.