Astro-gear!

Like astronomy gear?  Scopes and mounts?  Check out these equipment reviews on Sky and Telescope from the Astroimage Conference.  

Test of iPhone app

I hope to blog regularly from the winter star party next month. I plan on using an app provided by my web host and so this is a test of that interface. The attached image is from our church choir practice tonight. It is a two panel pano constructed on the iPhone. I hope to be able to upload video but not sure about all of the details. Take care

On-Line Education Webinar is now posted...

Recently, two fellow astro-imagers joined me for a webinar where we discussed utilizing Adobe Light Room for processing RGB astronomical images.  What a wonderful way to share information and provide education in today's world.  This archived webinar serves as an example of the new on-line educational services I am providing.  You can now access this highly customized one-on-one training from the comfort of your digital darkroom.  You and I will share applications and discuss ways to optimize your landscape or astronomical images in real-time.  It is a wonderful way to achieve your vision of the final image you captured in the field or under the stars. 

For more information on the services and to see the webinar, please go to Purchase, Digital Photography Education from the main menu. 

I hope you enjoy the presentation and simply email me if you would like to schedule a one-hour on-line session today. 

4 weeks and counting...

As most of you in the U.S. know, this winter has already been brutal.  So today begins my 4 week countdown to the Winter Star Party near Marathon, FL.  I plan on blogging daily from WSP and hope to incorporate video for those of you just finishing your snow shoveling:-)  The star party is really a wonderful break from the winter climate of the mid-Atlantic area.  I spent some time today working on compositions for the week and hope to bring back some wonderful data.  I also have plans for documentary work that I hope to share on the site sometime down the road.  So I post an image today taken from the 2009 WSP as I longingly look forward to the 2010 event.  Stay tuned for much more to come...

TWITS in Vegas...

Leo Laporte and his TWIT crew are broadcasting live and archiving web-based broadcasts from the Consumer Electronics Convention in Las Vegas this week.  There is a lot about this that intrigues me.  

First is the web-based broadcasting, both live and archived.  So far I have only viewed the archived presentations and the quality is pretty amazing.  It is only a sign of things to come in customized broadcasting. When you see things like this it is hard to envision how network TV will survive.  The fragmentation and specialization of our media only continues to expand.  Perhaps there will always be a place for mass-interest broadcasting, but it seems like the trend is certainly going against this.  Few events can bring together our country for mass viewing; sports, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars.  

The technology at CES is also intriguing.  FloTV is a branch of QualComm and they have installed a 700mhz network in the top 100 metro areas in the U.S.   The network can broadcast live TV such as ESPN and ABC to there own customized hardware, but there are plans to develop an attachment for the iPhone to receive and display the video feed.  

There was also a 3D laptop on display from Lenovo.  The future of gaming is surely going to move in this direction.  Lenovo also presented a laptop with detachable screen that became a tablet running Linux.  The laptop runs Windows 7 when in full laptop mode.  Web-based broadcasting, new networks for receiving media, and tablets/laptop hybrids seem to be moving our technology forward.  It will be an interesting decade.  

Most importantly, exposure to this technology has spurred some new ideas that I have for photographic education. I hope to announce this new venture in the coming months so please stay tuned.  Now to work on this new endeavor...

TWIT link