So by now you’ve probably seen the incredible NASA image of the plume from the volcano Sarychev Peak… but have you seen it…
Dree! Dree! Dreee!
Apologies to anyone who isn’t an SCTV fan. OOooo! Scary!
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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's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
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June 25th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
LOL!!! Yes! I loved Dr. Tongue! SCTV FTW!!
June 25th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Kids, don’t pee your pants!
June 25th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Who are these people you talk about that are not fans of the all mighty SCTV…
June 25th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Unfortunately, no 3-D glasses so the picture doesn’t do anything for me. It is a nice shot though.
June 25th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Awesome!
June 25th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Awesome, can I get some pancakes to go with that?
June 25th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Wow. It’s times like this that being nerdy enough to actually own 3D glasses is worth it. Thanks Phil!
June 25th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
3. Porky Pine Says:
Unfortunately, no 3-D glasses so the picture doesn’t do anything for me. It is a nice shot though.
No 3-D glasses?! Even MARTIANS have 3-D glasses!
J/P=?
June 25th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
What Jon B said. Best 3D pic for a while.
June 25th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Someday I would love to be cool enough to own prescription 3-D glasses. But which kind? Polarized? Red-Blue? Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The Black Dossier required Red-Green (or was it Green-Red?), and Monsters vs. Aliens required yet another kind.
June 25th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Anyone here not hitting APOD first thing every morning?
Keep those 3D glasses handy.
June 25th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
That’s very cool. Too bad I’m legally blind in one eye so I can’t view 3D images.
June 25th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Phil your geek license is definitely safe, I salute the reference to obscure Canadian skit comedy
June 26th, 2009 at 1:57 am
zomg… that. is. awesome! As an armchair volcano fan, I think I just had what may rightly be termed a nerdgasm. Space+volcano+stereo anaglyph = happy boy! That is soooo going on Facebook.
June 26th, 2009 at 2:21 am
There’s also a cross-eyed version on spaceweather.com:
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2009/24jun09/vantuyne2.jpg
June 26th, 2009 at 5:26 am
Where are the stewardesses?
June 26th, 2009 at 5:35 am
Everything’s cooler in 3D ^_^
June 26th, 2009 at 5:36 am
One day I might get some colored cellophane and try.
You should see these things from the ground – they’re impressive. Then again your hair gets full of very fine sand and I’m sure breathing that stuff in all day can’t be good for you either. If you’re close to the volcano dodging large rocks is no fun either.
The space view does offer something you can’t see from the ground – the stuff ejected from the volcano usually has a fair amount of water vapor in it, but in addition to that the upwelling sand is pushing lower altitude air, which has a higher moisture content than higher altitude air, upwards and as the air mass cools the water vapor condenses to form water and ice clouds. There is also good reason to believe that ice forms on the sand particles as well.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:08 am
That’s awesome. I’m glad I keep a pair of 3D glasses handy
June 26th, 2009 at 7:12 am
I used to have a pair of cardboard 3D glasses with blue and red plastic film. They recently had become so ratty that I had to toss them. So would it be possible to come up with a visual “cross” version, two side-by-side images that we can resolve into one 3D image with just our own eyes? No pesky 3D glasses are needed, and the colors are just a natural as can be!
Universe Today runs images like this on occasion:
http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/bub_cross.jpg
June 26th, 2009 at 7:20 am
So, kids, to get your special 3-d glasses send, um, $25 to this station…
Hoo-boy! That was some scaaaaary stuff!
Coming up next, Francis Ford Coppola’s “3-d Stake from the Heart” Awooooooooo!
June 26th, 2009 at 7:28 am
First you Squee! and now you Dree! What other sound effects can we expect from you?
June 26th, 2009 at 8:32 am
I curious to know how many people thought for a second to rotate the image. Also, how many actually tried.
I love APOD! It’s usually first on my daily web pages to hit each morning. Sorry, Phil.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Awesome reference Phil, SCTV rocks.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:31 am
More Sarychev Peak Volcano pictures at todays “The Big Pictures”. 2D, but a must-see!
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/recent_scenes_from_the_iss.html
June 26th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Actually, I believe that now, at this very moment, this picture can be found hanging in the entry way of Dr. Tongue’s 3D House of Beef.
Ooo! Now dat vas a scarey vun! Vell, ok… maybe not dat scarey.
June 27th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I never threw out the 3D glasses from that Chuck/Superbowl/Monsters vs. Aliens promo. They kind of work for this, but I really suck with 3D for some reason so they may actually work very well for other people.
June 28th, 2009 at 1:06 am
In relationship to the sounds Phil makes:
When ever I see the word Squee I think of a small goblin wizard with that noise for a name from the Magic the Gathering series and his attempts to be one of the good guys.
-Joseph
June 28th, 2009 at 1:24 am
I knew I liked this blog for some reason! I have to give you serious credit for the Dr. Tongue (and Count Floyd) knowledge there.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Dree! Dree! Dreee!??
Tsk, tsk! It was more of a DEhhh-NE, DEhhh-ne; DEhhh-NE, DEhhh-ne, with the “NE” emphasized as the object moved towards the camera, sort of like a “scary” doppler effect.
Somehow, 3D volcanoes and Dr. Tongue puts me in mind of Dr. Tongue’s 3D House of Stewardesses. Can’t quite figure out why. Sadly, anaglyphic 3D doesn’t work for me, as I have strabismus (or is it amblyopia..?). Some methods, like LCD shutter glasses, do, though. Interestingly enough, Disney’s 3D system works, too. I’ll likely never see one of those magic-eye images though; I think I’ll be able to deal with that disappointment, however. If I could find a pair of LCD shutter glasses with built-in frequency controls, maybe I’d be able to see everything in 3D…!