Rock Star/Astrophysicist Dr. Brian May Goes Backstage With New Horizons
Why, yes, I do think I'll read that!
From watching a New Horizons press conference last week, we knew Brian May was at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Maryland. Turns out his visit was more than a fly-by. Dr. May spent a few days with the team and has been named a New Horizons science collaborator by mission principal investigator Alan Stern. Here he is walking the halls with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.
Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky
Below, Dr. Brian May discusses the latest images of Pluto and Charon with members of the New Horizons GGI team.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Henry Throop
The NASA powwow happened to coincide with May's birthday. He called his visit “the best birthday gift ever.”
One of the things May did while visiting with the team was create the first known stereoscopic image of Pluto. (To fully appreciate it, you'd need to be wearing special spectacles.)
High quality stereo image of Pluto assembled by Brian May. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
May has been fascinated with stereoscope images since he was a child. In a NASA video, he explains, "Stereoscopic images are fun, they are very real they make you feel like you're there, but they also give you a lot of information because you can get heights from this and you can get the whole shape of the mountain ranges, you can establish the depth of the craters, and the rilles or whatever, you know... " You can check out the special NASA "Pluto in a Minute" right here!
https://youtu.be/E-zurr9PHKg
You can also read more about Brian's visit with NASA and New Horizon on Brian's Blog:
See Dr. May's images at http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianss...
PIXELS: Last night we took advantage of free sneak preview passes (from Sony) to see "Pixels," a flick that's been on CJ's radar for years now.
He first learned of it when he saw this short by Patrick Jean from 2010, about New York being invaded by 8-bit creatures: https://youtu.be/SxX_bVluflo
Fast forward a few years and there's a full fledged, big-bidget Hollywood work up on the theme.
Following is a short synopsis from CJ. SPOILERS AHEAD
On July 20th, 2015, I went to see a special preview of Pixels, a movie that will not be released to the public until July 24th. Pixels is named so because it is themed after older video games, which have graphics made out of pixels. Most of the games shown in the movie are from the late 70's and early 80's.
At the start of the movie, which is set in 1982, Will Cooper, a future President of the United States, goes biking with his best friend, Sam Brenner, who is a champion at Pac-Man. They visit a local arcade, and Sam gets a Chewbacca mask from the claw machine, earning him the nickname "Chewie". A short while later, Sam goes up against Eddie Plant, a rival whom he must beat at Donkey Kong in a tournament. a MC who is present at the tournament informs the audience that the competition will be recorded and sent up in a space probe for aliens to discover. Eddie wins at the competition (using cheat codes).
Over 30 years later, Will is now president, but it appears that aliens misinterpreted the content in the probe as a declaration of war. The aliens send attacks in the form of 3-dimensional versions of classic video games, such as Galaga and Pong. Will has to team up with Sam and Eddie to stop the aliens from destroying the planet.
I know this plot sounds silly and/or bizarre, but Pixels was a good movie. If you are interested in retro video games, then I would recommend watching Pixels.
Having seen Pixels last night, we had a hankering to get our hands on some joysticks and buttons, and tonight we headed to Full Tilt's Ballard location. There, Ms. Pacman awaited us. Annabelle was thrilled she got to level three for the first time ever.
Pixels sounds like fun, but Brian May is pretty cool too.
ReplyDeleteYou can look at a stereoscopic image unaided if you are able to focus beyond the page. The middle image will appear to be 3D. It's a trick you can learn. It works on the above photo.
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