• Dwarf 3 Scheduler

    My Dwarf 3 telescope has a schedule function which lets you plan out a night of astrophotography and it will handle everything automatically while you sleep. Since I’ve also made notes about focusing and marks for polar alignment, it only takes a couple of minutes to set everything up. How cool is that?

  • Eagle Nebula

    Another photo taken with my Dwarf 3 telescope. This is the Eagle Nebula.

    And here’s a crop of the Pillars of Creation. Not quite as cool as the one from the Hubble but pretty amazing that I could get this from my backyard.

  • Why Make Art?

    I’ve been wanting to create a series where I talk about art, design, life, whatever. I think this is my fifth attempt and the first one I liked. Let’s see if I can make more.

  • 3D People Looking at 2D Art

    I’m facinated by views of people looking at art. They’re even better in 3D. The hard part is always being rushed. One day I need to go to a museum by myself and spend time waiting for better shots. I’d love to make a whole zine (printed and for the Vision Pro) of these one day.

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    These images are all from the Amy Sherald show we saw at SF MOMA back in January.

  • Italy

    Last month we went to Rome and Florence. It was spectacular. I took so many photos—here are a handful.

  • Rosette Nebula Processing Examples

    The Rosette Nebula processed in PixInsight.
    (more…)
  • Dwarf 3

    It took 5 months to get here but I finally got my Dwarf 3 telescope and had a chance to take some images. Now the images right from the telescope don’t look this good but you can download the .fits files and process them yourself. So I figured I try to learn how to do that. I used this tutorial as a starting point (I skipped re-stacking the images myself) and got some nice results. These are taken from my backyard in light-polluted Dallas, TX.

    M42 – The Orion Nebula
    The Horsehead Nebula
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  • Spatial Photos and Videos with Fullscreen controls

    I think this is the best solution at the moment. I’ve added a button (labeled “spatial”) over these that triggers fullscreen. If you’re using an Apple Vision Pro, putting these in fullscreen will allow you to see the 3D versions. Everyone else will get 2D versions.

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    <div class="media-container alignwide">
      <div class="video-container">
        <video controls playsinline="true" poster="https://exp.michaelverdi.com/styles/spatial-poster.jpg">
          <source src="https://exp.michaelverdi.com/styles/spatial.mov">
          <source src="https://exp.michaelverdi.com/styles/spatial.mp4" type="video/mp4">
        </video>
        <button class="fullscreen-button" onclick="goFullscreen(this)"><img src="https://blog.michaelverdi.com/media/apple-vision-pro-icon.svg"/></button>
      </div>
    </div>
    
    <div class="media-container alignwide">
      <picture>
        <source srcset="https://exp.michaelverdi.com/styles/spatial.heic" type="image/heic">
        <img class="photo" src="https://exp.michaelverdi.com/styles/spatial.jpg" alt="your alt text">
        <button class="fullscreen-button" onclick="goFullscreen(this)"><img src="https://blog.michaelverdi.com/media/apple-vision-pro-icon.svg"/></button>
      </picture>
    </div>
    
    <script>
      function goFullscreen(button) {
        const media=button.previousElementSibling;
        if (media.requestFullscreen) {
          media.requestFullscreen();
          }
        }
    </script>