This is seriously weird on a lot of levels.
The guy I morph into is Tom Baker, the actor who played The Doctor back when I started watching it as a kid. I loved his Doctor, so it’s a little odd to see me turn into him… especially without any background music or regeneration effects. But especially especially because of his hair.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
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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"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
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November 17th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I’m not a celebrity (well, maybe among DeadHeads), but I wonder who I would morph into???
That’s a pretty cool morph. At your next costume party, try a wig. It can seriously freak people out, as in “WoW! There’s something different about you, but I can’t figure out what it is,,,”
GAry 7
November 17th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
PS: I just received my very first 8 inch reflector . I tend to celebrate Xmas by indulging one of my long time desires and this one(owning a big ’scope) has been on my priority list for over 50 years.
I think after I get thru checking my Lunar property, I’ll be looking for asteroids/comets dropping in from north of the ecliptic,,,maybe they’ll name a planet buster after me,,,
GAry 7
November 17th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I looked at the website and they seem to morph people with other people they have something marginally in common with. I imagine if you always talked about the A-Team in your blog you’d probably morph into Mr. T.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Right, like Dr. Phil has something marginally in common with a lovable Scottish ogre.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
(Dr. Phil McGraw, the daytime television “pscyhologist”, not OUR Dr. Phil.)
November 17th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Who?
November 17th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
WOW. phil does look like tom baker. or mabey he will in another 20 yrs
November 17th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Did anyone else find this slightly terrifying.
I mean this in a totally non offensive way. I think the lack of music and the creepy slow pan to close up at the end made it kind of frightening to me for some reason.
November 17th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I like watching it morph back so you can see his forehead grow and burst through that crazy mop on top of his head.
November 17th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Can I have a jelly baby?
November 17th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I think it makes you look kinda pensive and sensitive, Phil.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
So that is what Phil looks like with hair.
Plus it says celebrity morphing how is Phil a celebrity, just because he knows a couple.
(No. wonder it is taking forever to get my copy his book.)
November 17th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Gary Ansorge: Make sure to spend lots of time on Luna and Saturn. They look just amazing through an eight inch. Jupiter isn’t bad either (watching the moons over a few nights is pretty cool), but Luna is my favourite.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
About a third of the way through the change, I failed to have my disbelief suspended. Something jarred my brain into reality. It may have been the moment the glasses disappeared (although I think that the glasses were much more jarring in the reverse), or simply that there seems to be a downward lurch of the mandible that ruins the smoothosity of it all. Also might have been the background.
Oddly, after not “getting” the video, the final still-shot I find more eerily “morphic” between Dr. Plait and Mr. Baker.
In my opinion, in this case we have an example of new technology being less adept at creating the required illusion than old technology.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:56 am
When the hair sprouts out, it looks vaguely like an enormous ’70s-alien brain coming out of your head.
November 18th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Now if you morphed Doctor Phil into either the Peter Davison or David Tennant versions, whilst they were wearing the brainy specs, this might flow better.
Brainy specs ftw!
November 18th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Some of these morphs are more convincing than others… trying to morph our bad astronomer hero into a guy with big curly hair just doesn’t work very well. And in some of the morphs on this website, the heads become strangely bumpy during the transition… On the other hand, the morph between G.W.Bush and J.McCain is technically totally convincing and really, really, really creepy.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Ok, THAT’S going to give me nightmares…
November 18th, 2008 at 10:59 am
That’s Awesome Phil!
I’m sure someone has already said they need to get a life (I don’t generally read comments they annoy me). I once did a piece of artwork that was a Dalek reading your first book and some said I needed to get a life. I don’t think people understand how little time some of these things take, and how our artistic needs come out is some bizarre ways, at least to some other people.
And don’t worry, I’m working on a new image for your new book, Just need to come up with a good idea. And no, peanut gallery, I have a life, thank you very much.
Having seen you go from a guy with a little website with about a dozen regulars to the celebrity you are now has been a heck of a lot of fun. Congrats. And I can think of no better honor then being morphed into Tom Baker’s Doctor.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Creepy!