To help raise money for people to attend Randi’s skeptic conference, a very beautiful Hubble picture of the Orion Nebula is up for auction on Ebay. It’s printed at 600 DPI and is 30×30 inches (76×76 cm). You can see the original image file here.
The auction ends on June 1, so hurry! Note: they’ll only ship to the US.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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May 29th, 2008 at 8:33 am
It’s a shame for the Canadian fans.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:00 am
I just found my new wallpaper!
May 29th, 2008 at 9:00 am
I could not find a place for it any way.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:09 am
What, our money’s not green enough?
May 29th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I would bid if they ship to Europe. (Shipping doesn’t have to be free then…)
May 29th, 2008 at 10:22 am
[...] Vía Bad Astronomy Blog [...]
May 29th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Sorry to be pedantic, but accuracy is valued here.
Based on my reading of the description, the image is output at 600PPI (pixels per inch) as DPI is a measure of the output device (which, if specs are correct is 1200DPI).
Regardless of what you send to a printer, it prints at its resolution. If I send a 10pixel square image (at 5 inches wide) to a 1200DPI printer, the output is 1200DPI, but the output is lousy as the image was only output at 2PPI.
Most use the terms interchangeably, but they do have distinct meanings.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:20 am
@WJM:
Not unless you’ve changed it since the days some folks compared it to “Monopoly money.”
But then, these days US money isn’t as green as it was in those days, either . . .
May 29th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
The enlarged Hubble image reminds me of a pulsating heart.
May 29th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
=drool=
May 29th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Will we be seeing this photo in the digitally-enhanced version of the Star Trek (T.O.S.) first season episode “The Alternative Factor”?
True Trekkers will know what I mean.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:24 am
JB of Brisbane asked:
Will we be seeing this photo in the digitally-enhanced version of the Star Trek (T.O.S.) first season episode “The Alternative Factor”?
Instead of the Trifid nebula?
May 30th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Shame it’s not availble to non-septic skeptics. I’d love to have the chance to buy this. I think this is a missed opportunity to increase the income from this auction.
June 1st, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Holy crap! I just won this! Was totally not prepared for that!
[opens up a tab for PayPal]