[Geysers] *SPAM?* RE: Old Faithful night shot (correct link)

[Paul Strasser]

Allan:

I too have wondered about its authenticity.  First off, it is NOT a photo of
it in eruption.  Period.  It's just OF giving off nice little bits of steam
on a particularly still night.  I have taken time exposures in the geyser
basin and steam does very weird things - can look like trains of feathers,
as a matter of fact, and definitely appeared photoshopped.  But that's how
they turned out.

Of greater concern is the lack of trailing, as you indicate. Either the sky
will trail, or the ground will trail.  I have some great photos of Hale-Bopp
in which either the comet or the trees are trailing (this was with 1000 ISO
film).  Put simply, in a time exposure you cannot have both trees and sky
crystal clear.    I've copied the photo into photoshop AND PSP and see zero
evidence of blurring in either stars or trees.  

You need an exposure of several minutes with VERY fast film to capture the
milky way so beautifully, and in that time the ground would be a huge smear.

I am NOT saying that this is phony.  I'm just saying that someone with some
experience in such astrophotography is utterly flummoxed as to how it was
done.  So - the question to the photographer - how did you do it?

BTW, my brother had an "astronomy photo of the day" of Stonehenge on the
summer solstice.  Totally real, but several people complained to the site
that it HAD to have been bogus.  

Paul Strasser

-----Original Message-----
From: geysers-bounces at wwc.edu [mailto:geysers-bounces at wwc.edu] On Behalf Of
Moose, Allan E.
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 3:38 PM
To: geyser observation reports
Subject: Re: [Geysers] Old Faithful night shot (correct link)

Personally, I'm skeptical that this is an actual photograph. Rather, I think
it was a "manufactured" (i.e. Photo Shopped) picture.  My evidence for this
is as follows:

(1) In order to get a picture of the Milky Way with that much detail and
coloring, and especially the reddish pink blobs that are likely gaseous
nebulae, you would need to do a time exposure with the camera mounted on an
equatorial mount.

(2) If there was enough light to show the tree line as clearly as shown,
then during a time exposure there Old Faithful would have put up numerous
steam puffs that would have left a steam smear in the picture. If you have
the camera stationary to get Old Faithful without smears, then a time
exposure results in star trails.

(3) Look at the top of the steam cloud from Old Faithful. To me that appears
totally bogus. The structure of the water flow within the water column
during an OF eruption is very different from what is shown and the steam
rising off the column does not feather out into wisps as shown.

Allan
________________________________________
From: geysers-bounces at wwc.edu [geysers-bounces at wwc.edu] On Behalf Of Lotus
Baker [lotusb3 at earthlink.net]
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2007 10:44 AM
To: geyser observation reports
Subject: Re: [Geysers] Old Faithful night shot (correct link)

The curious thing about this otherwise beautiful picture, is that it
doesn't quite make
sense.  The photographer was facing south (give or take a few degrees) in
late twilight.
>From that vantage point, there should be benches and a ranger station in
the background.   I've tried to rationalize this by saying it was an
extremely low camera
angle, but I don't believe that totally explains it.  Any thoughts?

Keith Baker


> [Original Message]
> From: Greg W <ikscx at yahoo.com>
> To: geyser observation reports <geysers at wwc.edu>
> Date: 8/8/07 5:03:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [Geysers] Old Faithful night shot (correct link)
>
>  - - - - And the evident ignorance (geyser wise) of
> the caption writer was surprising.
>
>
>
> --- Kevin & Sherri Leany <ksleany at cox.net> wrote:
>
> > Here is a great night shot of Old Faithful on the
> > NASA web page (with the correct link this time).
> > Beautiful night sky.
> >
> > http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070807.html
> >
> > Kevin Leany
> > ksleany at cox.net>
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> >
>
>
>
>
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