We were recently given the opportunity to contribute one of our panoramas of the Mt. Wilson Observatory to the planetarium show at the Volkssternwarte Laupheim in Germany. As a huge fan of planetaria, I cannot express what an honor it is to see our names and our work featured in such a show. Big thanks to Sebastian Ruchti for helping to make this happen!

The two panoramas that I shot while atop the 150-foot Solar Telescope at Mt. Wilson were shot from the very same position, but with the tower’s revolving dome facing opposite directions. I decided to try to blend the two panoramas together in order to maximize the amount of “skyspace” in the shot. After some basic alignment, Photoshop gave me an almost ethereal blending result, which I think is more interesting than if I had just managed to remove most of the dome from the shot.

I’m having one of those days where I go back and check out all of the things I said I’d do “later.” Amongst those to-do items were some panoramas I’ve taken in the past year or so that I’ve been meaning to post on the blog. The first set, here, is from our PictureBubbles visits to the Mount Wilson Observatory here in California.

Inside the 100-ft. Telescope’s dome. The desk looks almost Jules-Verne-steampunk, no? (more…)

Hooker 100-inch telescope
Mount Wilson Observatory, California

Here’s the first glimpse of our PictureBubbles tour of the Mt. Wilson Observatory, out in the mountains north of Los Angeles. Unlike most of our other work, this is an “object movie.” Rather than pivoting around where the viewer stands, like most spherical panoramas, this image allows you to drag across, left to right, and rotate about the focal point. In this case, that focal point is this massive telescope, finished somewhere around 1917.

Making this was quite a lot of fun. Rather than walk around the entire installation at set intervals, Carel was able to set up the tripod in one position while Arthur Vaughan (Deputy Director of the Observatory) and I marked off the floor in 5° intervals. The entire domed turret revolves around the telescope, allowing us to create an image that would be otherwise impossible.