New ride in 3D

Get your anaglyph glasses out to view this 3D image of my new Fuji Sagres bike (well, it's new to me - it was built in 1986). This was taken with my new stereo camera rig of 2 matched Canon A570is cameras running the SDM (StereoDataMaker) version of CHDK (Canon Hack Developement Kit). The cameras are mounted on an aluminum base with holes drilled at fixed intervals - I used 130mm separation for this shot. They are triggered with a homebuilt USB switch hooked to both cameras that the SDM software running in the cameras recognizes to initiate simultaneous exposures in both cameras. I'm putting together a stereo webpage that runs java software created by StereoPhotoMaker - a freeware program that I highly recommend that will allow you to interact with the stereo image as you like rather than as I would otherwise force you to. If you prefer to parallel or cross-eye free view rather than use anaglyph glasses, you can control the interface there to do that.

Snow covered sunrise

There was no observing this night - last Wednesday night. As the morning twilight brightens the eastern sky, snow still covers the top of Mt. Graham with the SMT and LBT visible in this image. The image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 3.2 seconds at f/4.0, ISO 400.

Mt. Graham at work

Here's a view from Saturday night with both the SMT in the foreground and the LBT in the background at work on a moonlit spring night. The constellation of Bootes lies on its side as it rises behind the two telescopes. The LBT doesn't look as big as it is from this vantage point - but when one stands beside the behemouth, or looks at the telescope itself from inside the building, one gets the right impression of just how big this telescope really is with 2 - 8 meter diameter mirrors working in tandem. The Gregorian secondaries are about the size of the telescopes I am used to using! This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 60 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 400.

Night-time on Mt. Graham

The SMT is busy while the LBT remains closed (though it and its dome moved during my timelapse sequence that this frame is taken from) as the Moon lights up the scene on Mt. Graham looking east from the VATT. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1 minute at f/3.5, ISO 400.

Snowy sunset

The sun came out late in the day as the storm that brought us so much snow moved out. Though it stayed cloudy most of the night, it was clear by the next morning. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Winter on Mt. Graham

A bit of a surprise at how much snow fell up here on Mount Graham yesterday. I was expecting at best fluries or maybe an inch, but it was snowy and cold most of the day with about 4-6 inches accumulated. This image shows the SMT in the foreground with the LBT appearing to come out of the misty clouds. The image was taken with my 24mm lens at f/8 with an exposure of 1/250 seconds, ISO 100.

SMT on Mt. Graham

The Submillimeter Telescope on Mt. Graham is one of our next door neighbors not far from the VATT. This is a view into the telescope building to the telescope itself. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/10, ISO 100.

Meteorite in 3D

I've been putting together a 3D camera setup, buying 2 Canon A570IS point and shoot cameras and making myself a camera mount for the pair. I'm using the CHDK firmware hack to augment the cameras out of the box capabilities, using the Stereo Data Maker version that has some 3D specific functions. One thing left is to make a USB shutter button setup to trigger the two cameras simultaneously. I tripped the two cameras manually within a fraction of a second of each other for this 3D anaglyph which I created with Stereo Picture Maker. Get our your red-cyan anaglyph glasses to see the 3D in this image. The exposures were identical in both cameras with the focal length 5.8mm (35mm in 35mm equivalent f.l.) with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 80.