Comments on: Star Light, People Bright

By: dcsohl

dcsohl — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:43:27 +0000

Sorry, Phil, but I’ve sworn off G+ as a result of the “real name” issue that zandperl mentions above. I’ve no problem using my own “real name”, but I do have a problem with any service that mandates it with as heavy a hand as G+ has. I’d recommend you do the same… ever consider Tumblr, just to name one possibility?

By: Mike Flugennock

Mike Flugennock — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:30:54 +0000

Wow, awesome!

The figures bear a suspicious resemblance to a Randall Munroe cartoon. They look as if they should be making some ironic snarky remarks about astronomy or physics or something.

By: zandperl

zandperl — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:55:27 +0000

Sure we could follow you on G+, but many of us are no longer allowed to fully participate there because we are not allowed to use anything other than our government sanctioned "legal" names. Some of us have reasons to avoid using those.

By: SteveJ

SteveJ — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:49:09 +0000

@5. Pete Jackson
If you click on the “Field Walk” link in the post, Christopher says he lit the ground with his car headlights.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:44:23 +0000

Wait, doesn’t G+ have some clause that says they can use any posted images which would void any sort of stock exclusivity? Did this get resolved?

By: Pete Jackson

Pete Jackson — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:45:39 +0000

The lighting was done in an ingenious way since it illuminates for a long distance away without over exposing the ground nearer the camera. So the light is presumably quite a distance behind the camera, and it could either be a flash or a photoflood light turned on for a short duration.

By: Chris A.

Chris A. — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:18:32 +0000

@Thameron (#3):
If we’re being nit-picky, not all our hydrogen is necessarily primordial. Spontaneous fission of heavy radionucleotides can emit neutrons, and free neutrons undergo beta decay into a proton (AKA H-II) and an electron. So perhaps it’s a matter of semantics, since the resulting hydrogen was primordial before it got fused into the heavier element which ultimately spat it back out. If so, one could argue that we are all completely primordial (unless, philosophically, one argues that hydrogen loses its identity by becoming part of a larger nucleus and/or a neutron, and is thus no longer primordial).

By: Thameron

Thameron — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:47:28 +0000

“Carl Sagan loved to say — correctly — we are star stuff.”

While correct it was incomplete. We are roughly 10% Hydrogen by weight and that was made in the Big Bang not synthesized inside a star. We are star and Big Bang stuff.

By: Fritriac

Fritriac — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:44:19 +0000

Whoa! Genius @ work!

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:44:17 +0000

I have done some light painting pictures myself. They are very cool and a challenge to do well.. It looks like he used a flash as well to fill in the foreground.

Now that being said, I am betting that this is not straight from the camera, but probably had some color balancing, contrast or even brightness adjustments. But No he did not digitally add or remove elements which is the general (public) meaning of manipulation.
But to get truly technical about it, unless that is a RAW image then some software manipulation occurred. After all did you not just post an article about the scientific vs. public meaning of words and communication?