3D Intergalactic Art
As I was flipping through the Hubble telescope gallery, I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that IMAX and NASA teamed up together to film the final repair mission back in May ’09.. and all in 3D!
I was completely in shock when I read in Scott’s American Cinematographer magazine how much effort went into the development of the movie from start to finish. In a short period of time, the IMAX team trained the astronauts how to use the camera in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a 6.2 million gallon pool where the astronauts train for life in space.
Since just a single load of film could be taken up to space, they were only able to capture 8 minutes of actual spacewalk footage (which equals over a mile of film). Once fixed into position, the camera had no way to pan or tilt and all functions were operated via laptop. The film stock was specifically made for the production and the undeveloped negative weighed more than 50 pounds per roll in custom made cans. They also had to create a vacuum and pressurized system to keep the film from curling inside the container and to allow it to enter and re-enter the atmosphere properly. The footage had to be deemed a “national treasure’ by NASA to allow cinematographer James Neihouse to hand carry the film back to California on a commercial flight without having to put it through the x-ray scanner.
So much can go wrong up there in space. Astronaut Mike Massimino had to rip off a handrail after attempting to remove a bolt that wouldn’t budge. In the movie he describes that working on Hubble is like “doing brain surgery with oven mitts on”. Also, they say the most vulnerable part of the spacesuit are the gloves since they could slice open easily with one wrong move. Can you imagine??
So the only place it seemed to be showing near me was at the California Science Center in LA. Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, the movie is only 45 minutes long… and yes, you really do feel like you are right there changing Hubble’s batteries along with the crew. For about $10 you can get this life-like astronaut’s perspective of Earth from space, here’s your ticket: HUBBLE 3D
The final servicing mission included the installation of the New Wide Field Camera 3 and a Cosmic Origins Spectrograph allowing detailed imagery using UV and infrared spectrums of light. So now we can see deep into the universe better than ever…
Saturn with Aurora
Helix Nebula & Galaxy NGC 1512
Butterfly emerges from stellar demise in planetary nebula NGC 6302
UFO – no really, they have no idea what this is… photo taken on January 29, 2010. Looks like they call it a “comet-like asteroid”.
Spiral Galaxies NGC 2207 & IC 2163
Jupiter and moon IO
Eagle Nebula
Deepest view of universe – galaxies galore
The universe is just filled with intergalactic art.
April 14th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
I saw the trailer for the Hubble movie…. I am prepairing to be star struck myself!