A shift in time can shift our perspective, which is why time lapse photography can be so powerful. Here is a simple time lapse of the night sky, using a wide-angle lens. You get a Big Here/Long Now experience.

But the Canon 5D used to capture this was modified by replacing the standard infrared filter that normally ships inside the camera (which also block out the deep reds) with a special filter to permit near infrared photography. Thus the reds you see here that most cameras won’t capture.  You can buy fully modified Canon 5D cameras, ready for astrophotography, from here.

Here are the technical specifics by William Castleman:

The time-lapse sequence was taken with the simplest equipment that I brought to the star party. I put the Canon EOS-5D (AA screen modified to record hydrogen alpha at 656 nm) with an EF 15mm f/2.8 lens on a weighted tripod. Exposures were 20 seconds at f/2.8 ISO 1600 followed by 40 second interval. Exposures were controlled by an interval timer shutter release (Canon TC80N3). Power was provided by a Hutech EOS203 12v power adapter run off a 12v deep cycle battery. Large jpg files shot in custom white balance were batch processed in Photoshop (levels, curves, contrast, Noise Ninja noise reduction, resize) and assembled in Quicktime Pro. Editing/assembly was with Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9.

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Long Now Member Michael C. sent word about a great book review on the Atlantic’s Editor’s Choice for December.  The book is Europe Between the Oceans by Barry Cunliffe, and it recounts 10,000 years of European history starting in 9,000 BC.

I can’t think of a better gift this year for the historically minded reader. No book so well exemplifies what Cunliffe joyously calls “the vibrancy of archaeology.” More important, its focus on what Braudel called the longue durée will jolt the temporally complacent (and aren’t we all?), just as its bracingly materialist approach—which leads to the inescapable conclusion that trade has always laid the foundation for the exchange of ideas and beliefs, indeed for most cultural transformations—nicely tempers our blather about the power of ideas and the individual.

Tyler Cowen liked it, too.  Pick it up in all it’s deca-millenial glory.

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The recent collision of two satellites in orbit represents a pretty serious problem for proponents of spaceflight.  Some scientists are discussing ways of cleaning up the increasing amounts of debris in earth orbit.  They’re worried that more and more junk flying around up there will make it difficult for humanity to reliably operate satellites or manned vehicles.

Trash in orbit isn’t a new issue - it came up a couple years ago as a result of the Chinese test to shoot down a satellite, though the debris concern was somewhat overshadowed by totally legitimate fears of the militarization of space.

What scientists and spaceflight supporters hope to avoid is what’s called the Kessler Syndrome - a chain reaction set off by debris collisions that cause more debris and, therefore, more collisions.  The result of this scenario is such a high risk of collision in orbit that it renders impossible many or all of the space-based activities that we currently take for granted.

NASA’s on the case, though, with their Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center.  The coolest thing on their site is a link to the facility where orbital debris collisions are modeled - the Hypervelocity Impact Technology Facility.  They use high-speed cameras, light gas guns and computer simulations (with video!) to explore how collisions at orbital velocity (kilometers per second) will effect various shielding materials.

The European Space Agency is also taking a serious look at the space debris problem.  Watch a video showing the build-up of orbital debris over the last 50 years on their Space Debris Spotlight page and check out their own work on hypervelocity impacts on the space debris section of their website.

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On the left: “All the water in the world
(1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it)
including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers,
ground water, clouds, etc.”

On the right: “All the air in the atmosphere
(5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a
ball at sea-level density.”

Re-blogged from Forgetomori.

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On November 1st and 2nd, Stanford University and UC Berkeley will be hosting a gathering of the “scientific community.”  You don’t need tenure to get in, though.  The goal of Wonderfest is to bring together all who are curious, regardless of institutional ranking, to celebrate the scientific quest for truth and to hear a little bit about how we’re doing on some of the big questions.

On Saturday at Stanford, you can hear a physicist and a statistician discuss randomness, some geneticists hoping to revive extinct species, and a whole panel of conservation, carbon capture, solar and fission experts talking about the future of energy.  There will also be a Science Expo featuring art, books, comedy, crafts and music with a “scientific bent,” and a Mind Duel, pitting scientists against high school students.

The Wonderfest heads up to UC Berkeley on Sunday with an astronomer and SETI’s Chief Scientist discussing humanity’s heretofore cosmic loneliness, a psychiatrist talking about dreams with a sleep researcher and a discussion about how to make politics a little more science-savvy.  In addition, the Science Expo continues!

Channeling the late, great Carl Sagan, Wonderfest Director Tucker Hiatt says:

“I hold that the popularization of science is successful if, at first, it does no more than spark the sense of wonder.”  This sentiment, expressed by astronomer Carl Sagan shortly before he died, inspired the name — and the emotional foundation — of America’s oldest science festival.   After ten years, Wonderfest, the Bay Area Festival of Science, is still dedicated to Sagan’s memory.

Wonderfest 2008, the tenth anniversary festival, happens at Stanford on Saturday, Nov. 1, and at UC Berkeley on Sunday, Nov. 2.  The heart of Wonderfest is a series of public dialogues between world-class researchers in discussion of provocative scientific questions.  This year’s dialogues address the origin of randomness, the revival of extinct species, humanity’s perilous energy future, the decades long failure of SETI, the significance of dreams, and the science understanding that is essential for our leaders.

The dialogues and many ancillary activities — some festive, some deep — serve to broaden the meaning of “scientific community.”  Professional scientists often use this term to refer only to themselves.  Wonderfest uses it to describe everyone who regards science as the best way of learning how the world really is.

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 I recently came across these amazing data driven globe’s from Yale’s G-Econ group.  The one above represents population density, but their tool allows for all kinds of data to drive the topology from average rainfall to distance from coastlines.

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 The always cool Genetic Archaeology blog has a nifty article on a team of researchers that have managed to get some 2000 year old dates to germinate and produce a tree.  The dates were excavated from the Masada which as built 2044 years ago, and carbon dating of other seeds confirmed their age.  Not quite Jurassic Park, but it could be beginning of a new attraction…  The Biblical Garden.

After eight weeks, a small green shoot emerged from one seed, and by 26 months, Methuselah had grown to a height of nearly four feet. Except for a few white spots on its first leaves, the plant remains healthy.

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Long term fire.  It turns out there are many very long lasting fires.  I became interested in the way fire moves underground back in 02000 when I saw parts of the Long Now property on fire, and the fire was spreading through the root systems of trees.  Every 5 minutes or so a tree would just appear to spontaneously combust.  That fire eventually blew up in near nuclear proportions (mushroom cloud and everything) and tragically took out a swath of the ancient bristlecones.

Since then I have noted several long term and underground fires (which also  produce massive amount of global CO2).  The one pictured above from Uzbekistan is one of the more photogenic.  I will keep the list below updated as I find more (like I do with the Underground Wonders post), so feel free to make notes of ones you know about in the comments and they will be added.

• Mt Wingen Australia underground coal fire first noted by westerners around 01828, but it is predicted that it has been burning for over 6000 years.
• “Fossil Reactors” are naturally occurring underground fission reactions in Uranium deposits of Oklo Africa, estimated at around 1.7 billion years old.
• “Door to Hell” (pictured above) Near Darvaz in Uzbekistan, burning since ~01972
• Coal mine seam fires, some of these have been burning since the Qing dynasty in China, and the Centralia PA fire has been burning since 01961.
• Some tire fires have lasted several years

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New images from the Mars HiRISE orbital camera. Yup thats us, earth, and our little moon too…

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Prison Uniforms, 2007
10×23 feet in six vertical panels Depicts 2.3 million folded prison uniforms, equal to the number of Americans incarcerated in 2005.

Sean Tafller sent me this link to Chris Jordan’s photography. Hi-res photos of e-waste and his “American Portrait” depicting everything from the number of flights per day int he US to the number of toothpicks used is a real big here, long zoom moment. Similar themes are explored in Ed Burtynsky’s work, who will be speaking in our Seminar series later this year.

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