deviantART: by:Hector42

Canon EOS mod and astrophotography

~Hector42 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:10:08 PST

Journal Section

So I got the EOS 350D and on the same day I astro-modded it . Here are some pictures I took during that process:

There were many tiny ribbon cables to disconnenct and reconnect and I had to (de-)solder the EM shielding. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't too difficult either.

The chip assembly.

Flashy hologram Oo .

CMOS and filter separated. Of course common photography is not reccommended without that filter, because a) the white balance is way off and you also get a lot of IR light mixed into the photograph and b) without a replacement the focal planes for finder and chip are pretty much different, so you can't focus.
I'll reopen the cam at some later point, when I bought a replacement filter that still allows astronomical use. Then I can have both, astronomical use of the cam and common use .
Here are the statistics of the Canon filter, the replacement filter and the all so important H-alpha emission line:

(taken from this website: [link] )

And the first image I took with the modded cam: it's a soldering iron, taken in total darkness. It's a complete IR image:

I'm so amazed by this camera! The noise is extrelemy low compared to the Nikons I'm used to, also the noise pattern is pretty much fixed. A master dark eliminates so much noise, it's freightening me! The EOS can do exposures of 1.5 hours in to...

I did it :)

~Hector42 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:00:15 PST

Journal Section

...I bought a second hand but refurbished EOS 350D from ebay, with warranty and stuff!
I'll do the astrorigging myself, means exchanging the built in IR-blocker with clear glas. Then one of my greatest dreams will come true: taking emission line images from space nebulae without worrying about light pollution!
(explanation: space nebulae emit light at very specific wavelengths - one of them is 656 nm. I have a filter that transmits only this very wavelength, so light pollution is vitrually completely eliminated. Unfortunately the built in IR-blocker of DSLRs also block that 656 nm line, that's why people like me rip out that built-in filter and replace it with clear glas. To use the cam for common photography again, that built-in filter can be "emulated" by using a screw-in filter in front of the lens or a clip-in filter which fits between lens and mirror. Of cause if you take images at a single wavelength, you only get monochrome results. Somday I'll buy other line filters (they are pretty expensive), if you combine the monochrome images every filter takes, you get a scientific and also aesthetical colour composit. The hubble does it that way and that's my goal also.)
Of course those filters only work on gas nebulae. Stars and galaxies emit all wavelengths continuously and therefore no filter will ever exist that blocks 99% light pollution while transmitting 99% of the starlight. Sadly.

Clubs

- nothing
- Simutrans
- -

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New possibilities

~Hector42 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:04:59 PDT

Journal Section

Still not he major breakthrough yet, but I managed to adapt an old 50mm lens reversed to the compact cam (Lumix DMC-FX10).
I have been pretty pleased about what this cam can do but as I like macro very much, I had the urge to put a lens in front of it as long as I can't afford a real DSLR. I'm stunned by the results of that silly adapter. Unfortunately it can't photograph itself lol, so I can't yet provide an image of that piece of engineering of mine . First test shots were made on a clematis flower. Look how sharp it is (actually I applied a small very blur after doing a large scale unsharp mask for contrast enhance on some images) and note the exposure times - the shots are freehand with wind!
Optical camera zoom is mostly at maximum, I'm lucky that my adaptor puts the lens so close in fromt of the built in lens, that I can zoom out a little bit also, without getting distortion or vignetting .

I might get more active again now .
...and I always seem to get the most favorites on images that I consider to be not so good. And vice versa Oo .

Clubs

- nothing
- EVE online and Empire Earth I
- -

dWarped Journal CSS is based on the Warped template design by Six Shooter Media. It's avaliable here at deviantArt under the Creative Commons Attribution v2.5 - this version is modified by hector42.

Tablet

~Hector42 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:16:23 PDT

Journal Section

MAAAAH! Vista doesn't like the old Graphire 2 Tablet *cries* ! Does anyone know how to get a Graphire 2 working with Vista x64? The stupid Wacom driver installs some strange newish applications but doesn't make the tablet being accepted in the device manager. It's still like it has no driver. And it doesn't extract any folder for manual driver installation. The exact kind of my Tablet is ET-0405-R.

Clubs

- Arias at
  last.fm
- EVE online
- -

dWarped Journal CSS is based on the Warped template design by Six Shooter Media. It's avaliable here at deviantArt under the Creative Commons Attribution v2.5 - this version is modified by hector42.

Devious Journal Entry

~Hector42 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:59:58 PDT

Journal Section

Aww, half a year no journal O_O . Time for another silly question chart xD

Level 1
(x) Smoked A Cigarette
(x) Smoked A Cigar
( ) Kissed A Member Of The Same Sex
SO FAR: 2

Level 2
(x) Are / Been In Love
(x) Dumped someone *still feels sorry -.-*
( ) Been Fired
( ) Been In A Fist Fight
SO FAR: 4

Level 3
( ) Had A Crush On An Older Person
( ) Skipped Class
( ) Slept With A Co-worker
(x) Seen Someone / Something Die
SO FAR: 5

Level 4
( ) Had / Have A Crush On One Of Your deviantART / sheezyart Friends
(x) Been To Paris
( ) Been To Spain
(x) Been On A Plane
(x) Thrown Up From Drinking
SO FAR: 8

Level 5
( ) Eaten Sushi
( ) Been Snowboarding
(x) Met Someone Through Internet
(x) Been in a Mosh Pit
SO FAR: 10

Level 6
( ) Been In An Abusive Relationship
(x) Taken Pain Killers
(x) Liked/loved Someone Who You Cant Have
(x) Laid On Your Back And Watched Cloud Shapes Go By
(x) Made A Snow Angel
SO FAR: 14

Level 7
( ) Had A Tea Party
(x) Flown A Kite
(x) Built A Sand Castle
( ) Gone mudding
(x) Played Dress Up
SO FAR: 17

Level 8
(x) Jumped Into A Pile Of Leaves
( ) Gone Sliding
( ) Cheated While Playing A Game
(x) Been Lonely
( ) Fallen Asleep At Work / School
SO far: 19

Level 10
(x) Watched The Sun Set
( ) Felt An Earthquake
( ) Killed A Snake
SO FAR: 20

Level 11
(x) Been Tickled
(x) Been Robbed / Vandalized
( ) Been cheated on
(x) Been Misunderstood
SO FAR: 23

Level 12
(x) Won A Contest
( ) Been Suspended From School
( ) Had Detention
( ) Been In A Car / Motorcycle Accident
SO FAR: 24

Level 13
( ) Had / Have Braces
( ) Eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
( ) Danced in the moonlight
SO FAR : 24

Level 14
(x) Hated The Way You Look
( ) Witnessed A Crime
( ) Pole Danced
(?) Questioned Your Heart
( ) Been obsessed with post-it-notes
SO FAR: 25

Level 15
(x) Squished Barefoot Through The Mud
( ) Been To The Opposite Side Of The World
(x) Swam In The Ocean
(x) Felt Like You Were Dying
SO FAR: 28

Level 16
(x) Cried Yourself To Sleep
( ) Played Cops And Robbers
( ) Recently Colored With Crayons / Colored Pencils / Markers
( ) Sang Karaoke
(x) Paid For A Meal With Only Coins
SO FAR: 30

Level 17
( ) Done Something You Told Yourself You Wouldn't
(x) Made Prank Phone Calls
( ) Laughed Until Some Kind Of Beverage Came Out Of Your Nose
(x) Kissed In The Rain
SO FAR: 32

Level 18
(x) Written A Letter To Santa Claus
( ) Watched The Sun Set/ sun rise With Someone You Care/Cared About
(x) Blown Bubbles
(x) Made A Bonfire On The Beach Or Anywhere
SO FAR: 35

Level 19
( ) Crashed A Party
( ) Have Traveled More Than 5 Days With A Car Full Of People (and a dog)
(x) Had A Wish Come True
( ) Been Humped By A Monkey
SO FAR: 36

Level 20
( ) Worn Pearls
( ) Jumped Off A Bridge
( ) Screamed "Penis" or "Vagina"
( ) Swam With Dolphins
SO FAR: 36

Level 21
( ) Got Your Tongue Stuck To A Pole/Freezer/ice Cubes
( ) Kicked A Fish
(x) Worn The Opposite Sex's Clothes
(x) Sat On A Roof Top and watched the stars
SO FAR: 38

Level 22
(x) Screamed At The Top Of Your Lungs
( ) Done / Attempted A One-Handed Cartwheel
(x) Talked On The Phone For More Than 6 Hours
( ) Recently stayed up for a while talking to someone you care about
SO FAR: 40

Level 23
(x) Picked And Ate An Apple Right Off The Tree
(x) Climbed A Tree
( ) Had/Been In A Tree House
( ) Been scared To Watch Scary Movies Alone
SO FAR: 42

Level 24
(x) Believed In Ghosts
( ) Have had More Then 30 Pairs Of Shoes
( ) Gone Streaking
( ) Visited Jail
SO FAR: 43

Level 25
(?) Played Chinese Chicken
( ) Been Pushed into a pool with all your clothes on
(x) Been Told You're Hot By A Complete Stranger
( ) Broken A Bone
(?) Been Easily Amused
SO FAR: 44

Level 26
( ) Caught A Fish Then Ate It Later
( ) Made A Porn Video/got asked to make one
(x) Caught A Butterfly
( ) Laughed So Hard You Cried
(x) Cried So Hard You Laughed
SO FAR: 46

Level 27
( ) Mooned/Flashed Someone
( ) Had Someone Moon/Flash You
( ) Cheated On A Test
(x) Forgotten Someone's Name
( ) French Braided Someones Hair...

no dslr but compact / thanks for purchasing prints

~Hector42 — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:35:07 PST

Journal Section

dA gallery version 2.1
(since I checked it out...)

EOS 350D:

Umm, well, at the same time I got a lot of money, I had to spend al lot too for some kind of fee. So the DSLR still has to wait . But I got a compact cam for present...lokk into my scaps: the mouse and orion constellation are shot using this cam. I think it has potential althoug its so small. But it's of course no exchange for a 350D .

Prints requests:

Another thing I want to mention is that I recently receiced my first payment from dA respective from all you girls and boys who purchased my prints. That means much to me and I hope you enjoy the prints and that they are what you wanted (I never saw one of my prints in a printed form but I take much care to ensure that they should look like intended and like shown here in the preview!). Thanks to all of you and not at least to all the others who visit my gallery, especially to those who do it more or less frequently .

The Blobb within my Message Center:

380 deviations and 125 message -> 489 deviations and 191 messages. -.-

Clubs

- Arias at
  last.fm
- Naruto
- -

dWarped Journal CSS is based on the Warped template design by Six Shooter Media. It's avaliable here at deviantArt under the Creative Commons Attribution v2.5 - this version is modified by hector42.

EOS 350D + Tag

~Hector42 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:51:24 PDT

Journal Section

EOS 350D:

This month a nice payback should arrive from my power authorities (they wanted me to pay a certain amount monthly, after moving here and before my very first annual major deduction is done - this monthly amount they wanted is far above what I actually consumed, so I should get several hundered Â back from what I've paid too much over the last months) .
To take advantage of this sudden liquidity ( ) I'm going to spend it on a Canon EOS 350D . Maybe it's going to be some other DSLR with similar pricing, I'm not sure yet but the 350D is the cam I always wantedt.
Yay, yay, this will be so cool: my own higher quality digital cam!!

Uh, yeah, and I got tagged by :

The rules:
1. post these rules
2. each person tagged must post 8 random facts about themselves
3. tags should write a journal of these facts
4. at the end post 8 more bloggers are tagged and named
5. go to their page and leave a comment telling them they're tagged

So, ok, 8 random facts...erm...you know...what the heck means "random"?? As if I could roll a dice in my head...
I'm always focused on my personal problems and there is not much to tell about my life cause it simply doesn't exist in that way, but I'll try to randomize... *tries* :
1. Okay, that's about my personal problems but it's indeed quite funny, so I tell ya. I'm punching and kicking when I'm asleep last week I kicked into my cupboard with such a power, that I had to peel off my skin from it and injured a vain at my foot. In addition to that, I wake up myself sometimes, because I'm shouting things like "Fuuuuuck!!!" or "Don't touch me you poo-head!!!". It's funny somehow but a little bit scary. But it's actually a good sign: during the last 5 years my mind wasn't able to compile things, now it startet to compile and it compiles like hell, obviously.
2. I love my snake!! A few weeks ago I stepped onto her and she looked like this: ----____------8-< ...I was really totally scared...poor thing - stupid me!! But it looked like she had no problem with it. I know, reptiles show pain less obviously, but it looked like she felt much better than me. However, last week she got some mice and it seems as if they inflated little snaky's body for the most part again.
3. I'm pro nuclear plants!!! (as a temporal solution)
4. Thinking about how I can save energy without loosing my live's quality ist fun. ^^
5. I eat 1 - 2 packages Twix a day...that means 10 to 20 single bars!
Well on some days I'm low on Twix...but that doesn't happen too often.
6. I'm sleeping on the ground...japanese style!
7. When I'm under the shower I need 5 minutes to clean my body and 25 minutes to cultivate my beautiful hair. ^^
8. I don't read a lot of books.

So, now comes the most difficult part...who do I tag... ...arm I'm such a coward that I must ask you if you want to be tagged. So if you want that tag, then tell me and I'll add your icon here.

The Blobb within my Message Center:

401 deviations and 135 message -> 380 deviations and 125 messages. YAY I'...

fighting the blobb which takes over my message cen

~Hector42 — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 08:44:29 PDT

Journal Section

Coutdown for the 8 inch mirror:

get all the stuff to grind a mirror
build a suitable grinding tool
bevel the edges of the mirror
rough cut
fine cut
carbo 180
0.5 h
1.0 h
1.5 h
2.0 h
2.5 h
3.0 h
3.5 h
4.0 h
carbo 320
carbo 600 (?)
Al₂O₃ 15 Âµm
Al₂O₃ 9 Âµm
Al₂O₃ 5 Âµm (?)
polishing, measuring and correction
metallization
first light

Looks like I'm not able to get control over all the deviations and comments which wait for a comment and a reply. But there is a light at the en of the tunnel: I've announced to fight back the blobb of deviations and waiting comments in my message center. So if you are one of the persons who miss a reply from my side, there is a chance that you'll get it someday - even if the chat lies back many months or even a year .

401 deviations and 135 messages to go!

Take this you blobby bastard! ......oh, WTF!!!

---

12 inch project material listing:

8x 25 mm x 25 mm x 2000 mm aluminium pipes.................................about 164 $
screws with nuts (100x), M5x40 mm...........................................................11 $
shims (250x)............................................................................................7 $

Own Features

' Papillon Sur Blanc' in macrophotography

Going on with telescope making! :)

~Hector42 — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:30:43 PDT

Journal Section

Yeah, I've cleaned up my Journal a little bit. I'll make further changes to this nice and free Journal layout as soon as I'm a bit more into HTML/CSS. I've decided to delete the telescope making sections from my journal, since there isn't happening much. Well, on the other hand I resumed grinding the 8 inch mirror and I'm making some big leaps towards the end. I'll post news about the 8 inch and the 12 inch project here in the "Journal Section" . So here is some kind of coutdown for the 8 inch mirror:

get all the stuff to grind a mirror
build a suitable grinding tool
bevel the edges of the mirror
rough cut
fine cut
carbo 180
0.5 h
1.0 h
1.5 h
2.0 h
2.5 h
3.0 h
3.5 h
4.0 h
carbo 320
carbo 600 (?)
Al₂O₃ 15 Âµm
Al₂O₃ 9 Âµm
Al₂O₃ 5 Âµm (?)
polishing, measuring and correction
metallization
first light

Not many shiny pictures, I know...I don't have much equipment at the moment. But I promise that it'll get interesting during the polishing/measuring/correction phase.
The (?)-entries are because I don't know if this stuff is still in my parent's cellar, or if I simply doesn't heave it. I have to have a look next time I visit them.
My personal grinding session lenght is 0.5 h (just to have an idea how long I've already worked with one grain size...usually I work >= 1 h in one go), therefore the above list from 0.5 h to 4.0 h. Note: I just picked 4.0 h to be the maximum - most propably I can switch to a finer grain earlier but especially with the carbo 180 I'm not sure because I somehow got a fissure into the mirror which may be grinded out after some additional sessions.
The difference between carbo and aluminiumoxide (Al₂O₃) is that the carbo grains are round and punch out small pieces of glass from the mirror, this way they hit relatively deep holes into it. The Al₂O₃ is plate-shaped and it planes the glas, therefore it makes a much smoother surface. Some other interesting things happen, during the polishing where ceriumoxide is used, so stay tuned.

---

12 inch project material listing:

8x 25 mm x 25 mm x 2000 mm aluminium pipes.................................about 164 $
sc...

getting in video astronomy

~Hector42 — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:07:59 PDT

Recent journal entry:

Okay, long time no Journal xD ...some things have changed:

1. I take meds against depression and fear and it's working kinda great ^^ therefore:

2. I'm living in my flat now for about 3 weeks and I'm feeling very well here.

3. I have a balkony, so now I'm able to set up my scope permanently, that's a great help.

4. I don't have a DSLR anymore, the one I used belongs to my father and since I've moved... :/ ...so no higher quality astroshots until I can afford a DSLR...and no other shots too, I guess. (Well, I'm usig a cheap film-SLR right now but I've only got a 50 mm lens for it .)

5. BUT I modified a webcam so that I can capture planetary images using the default videoastronomy techniques. My equipment and workflow isn't optimized yet, but it looks like I've got some results. ...well...they aren't comparable to what you other guys can do (especially ) but...hmm...whatever .Well, I'm using a simple Newtonian to capture planets, maybe that's not toooo optimal . I'll give the small refractor try too...

6. Soon I will continue with my telescope making stuff...I think I will work in the kitchen...have you ever seen a fusion of kitchen and work-room? "Hey, where's the mixer?!" "Ah, erm...just take the huge dilling machine over there..."

So...here are my very first planetary images using a webcam:

Saturn, yesterday, prior to deconvolution, baaaad seeing (average of best 1% out of 2700 images @ 1/20 second exp.), exposure is too long and planetary disc ist too small...I've overworked the settings/equipment for Jupiter below.

Saturn after deconvolution...still bad... :/

Jupiter, tonight, like Saturn it's not far from the horizon, unfortunately . When it comes out of the stacking program it looks like this (average of best 1% out of 500 images @ 1/60 second exp.)

...after some basic histogram corrections...

...after deconvolution...I'm pleased with the deconvolution result since the base image is an average of just 5 webcam frames at highest sensitivity...next time I'll be quicker to capture much more frames .

My photography in mathematical terms:

macroÂ³

"Hey master, what are these images for?!"
("hey master" could be translated as "hey mate" or "hey you obscure guy" lol )
1. I'm not his master...I should have answered "I'm not your master, if you want a master, go to the SM studio." (cause...you know...I'm more of a slave or pet )
2. Why does he ask me why I make images? I'm pretty sure that this is of no concern for him.

He had to throw me off the this area. The funny thing: he told me that when I take the shots from 10 m across the street, he could do nothing against it (he had to follow orders but I think he wanted to help me). However, from across the street the images look shitty and they reveal more detail of the building and it's employees than taken with a wideangle lens right beneath/under the building/architecture Oo .

Another question: Why is a federal office not a public building? It's right beneath the railway station in a rather populated area of the city. And why am I not allowed to photograph non-public buildings. What's so secretly going on there? It's no launchpad for nuclear weapons...it's a building full of people who sit behind desks and who are bureaucratically managing issues about natural radiation and protection of humans and nature from radiation. There are thousands of security cameras and one side of the building is even protected by a fence and barbed wire (well the other side looks quite pretty though).
The father of my very first girlfriend works there, so I've already been inside this building, many years ago.

And now the artistic question of the day: Why do they hire an expensive architect to build an interesting building, when it is not allowed to photograph it and to have fun with it? What is the beauty of the building for? Who is the beauty of the building for? Is it for the few people who work there...to give them a more beautiful place to work? I guess they are happy when they don't have to see their place of work when they come home...

It's impossible in this world to be non-depressive, because everytime I try to get out and do something funny and creative, there is something which destroys it.

My photography in mathematical terms:

macro³

weather² + macro

I've been tagged by ...well I'd been tagged with this "6 odd features" tag several times before but what the heck, I'll try to tell you some differen and maybe more recent features.

1:
I shave my legs, although I'm not gay...not yet .

2:
On some days I feel like I want to sing. Then I sing. I sing songs like "Morning Has Broken", "Yesterday" or "Let It Be", even "Jingle Bells" or German Chrismas songs in the middle of July . And sometimes I'm not afraid to sing them on the street or in the supermarket! (Well, "Jingle Bells" does fit when I'm taking frozen food out of a feezer in the supermarket, doesn't it??)
However, on these days I'm more of a parrot than of a depressed artist because I play with the songs and after a while I sing a completely different text or just stuff like "Qua qua~, manabutu ba baaa~~" .

3:
I'm 25 and still living with my parents. But that's over now, I tell ya! Has to do with my overall very weird mind.

4:
Another thing about my mind: Pay compliments to me and I want more. Attack me and my thoughts and I feel alive. Ignore me and I get angry and cry like a child.

5:
When I was a child I imagined to be a waterfall when I stood under the shower. I was the cliff, the stones, the plants, while the waters flew over me. Sometimes it still happens when I have enough time under the shower.

Grande Maleur!

~Hector42 — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:42:59 PST

Recent journal entry:

Bohohooo I lost another battle in the war about painting the telescope black...see the 8 " project in the telescope section of this journal for details.

My photography in mathematical terms:

macro³

weather² + macro

astro³

My top favorites from friends and other artists!
(if you like what you are seeing, you should check out their galleries)

__ __ __

's latest capture was the last straw and now I'm getting my equipment sorted - at last.
Thanks Simon!
Another thing about astrophotopraphy: I'm moving...I will have a balcony which points to the south-west. Most probably I will be able to operate the telescope from inside the house . I've got a webcam now and I want to use it for planetary shots and for autoguiding. That's the good news. The bad news is that I don't really know how much free sky there is and light pollution will be worse. Someday I will buy additional high quality line-filters which will enable me to make high quality composites from gas nebulae even from a location with extreme light pollution. However, I don't know how to deal with galaxies. ...and...well...I'll need a DSLR cam too . Maybe I can do some shots using some Kodak Techical Pan films which are left im my freezer.

My photography in mathematical terms:

macro³

weather² + macro

Coming up:
more studio macros, especially shots from minerals
Movie trailer collab, containing my 3D-Mountain fly-by animation!!
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered
real 3D stuff using Maya

Legend: = work in progress; = could take a while; = currently frozen; = project canceled

:(

~Hector42 — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:55:13 PST

Recent journal entry:
Hey folks...not much text here, just a snapshot of my mind...

(if anyone knows this image from dA, please tell me...I want a print)

Coming up:
more studio macros, especially shots from minerals
Movie trailer collab, containing my 3D-Mountain fly-by animation!!
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya

Legend: = work in progress; = could take a while; = currently frozen; = project canceled

Recent updates and prints:
-none-

Personal favorites from my own gallery:

macro / conceptual macro / astro

weather / macro / abstract macro

See some shots from a funny photoshooting below in the "Features Section".
Credits for taking the shots go out to Nina Stiller.

MANY THANKS NINA!!!
(if you ever get the chance to read this... )

Our band page ist under construction!

3rd thing refers to the telescope-making infos I promised to provide. I will track the progress I make in building a tube for a 12 inch Newtonian (and after that maybe a mirror). Surely I will explain a little bit about all that stuff and I will list all the expenses for you and me to see what it costs to build such a thing.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask, although I've build just one tube before, I will be glad to answer them!

4th: I have a print account now, so prepare for some prints. Any suggestions for deviations you want me to upload as prints are highly appreciated, so if you want to have something as a print, feel free to tell me.

Coming up:
more studio macros, especially shots from minerals
Movie trailer collab, containing my 3D-Mountain fly-by animation!!
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya

Legend: = work in progress; = could take a while; = currently frozen; = project canceled

...

Hi folks!

~Hector42 — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 19:40:36 PDT

Recent journal entry:
I'm back online!
I'm back in life!

...means that I probably have some time for dA now and that I'm not anymore totally pissed off about life and love...hanging around in gothic-bars is much fun ...although sacrificing some of my principles in order to have some more fun in my life is kinda bitter but necessary.

With the next Journal Entry, I'm going to start a series of Journal Entries about telescope-making. I'm not building any telescopes right now, but I started with the 12 " Newtonian some time ago...and I kinda screwed up the 8 " Newtonian I used for my shots...up to now.
No problem, this baby isn't broken, it's just a bit...unusable...at the moment.

The 3D animation is finished. It's not toooo exciting but, hey, it's my first real animation...
Improovements of this planet and high-res renders are following.
Here is the link to the animation (it's reduced in size (0.5x) and the compession is very strong (XviD quality 89) so the image quality is terrible...you need a DivX codec to run it but I'm sure you already have this ):

[link]

I'm featuring a friend, again, cause I'm still the only person who watches him...and there should be more, so go NOW and check him out:

===> <==

Coming up:
Movie trailer collab, containing my 3D-Mountain fly-by animation!!
I'll submit my selfmade telescope tube either as telescope making tutorial or as...dunno, some kind of sculpture?? I have to look which categories exist...
ornamental images to enhance my journals appearence
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
trying to do more studio macros and maybe other studio shots

Legend: = work in progress; = could take a while; = currently frozen;

This old friend once showed me dA, but he hasn't done anything for dA over all the years...now he's back!

Have a look in his gallery, where he posts 3D-pics from Poser and other interesting stuff:

===> <==

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Featuring personal favorites from my own gallery

<...

Mojoworld renders and animation

~Hector42 — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 09:39:03 PDT
Recent journal entry:
Yeehaww!! I'm a bit busy doing this 3D animation for a movie intro, so please excuse me that I still haven't answered some shorter or longer comments.
I do best when I'm under a slight pressure...time is running out, the whole thing should be done before 03.07.2006. But I'm still building the scene and the 15 seconds of animation will need about one week rendering time (on three computers with a total of 6.2 GHz, 24 hours a day ).
I learned many interesting things about Mojoworld (the planet generating software) in a short time and once this project ist finished, expect some nice (and more photorealistic) renders from me. I'll modify some older renders according to my new knowledge too. I think this will be all great!

Temporary links for Willow:
[link]
[link]

Coming up:
I'll submit my selfmade telescope tube either as telescope making tutorial or as...dunno, some kind of sculpture?? I have to look which categories exist...
ornamental images to enhance my journals appearence
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
trying to do more studio macros and maybe other studio shots

Legend: = work in progress; = could take a while; = currently frozen; = project canceled

Recent updates:
-none-

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Featuring personal favorites from my own gallery

_ _ _

Time for a questionlist full of emoticons...

~Hector42 — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:13:22 PDT
Recent journal entry:

First: I tag and

1. Name: Sven-Alexander Jensen
2. Nickname: "Daddy"...I guess.
3. Birthday: May 31th, 1981
4. Place of Birth: Seesen, Germany.
5. Zodiac Sign:
6. Male or Female: Somewhere in between but still rather male...my body is definitive a male one...
7. Education: Err, yes we have a different system...left Gymnasium without Abitur, then became a chemical-technical assistent.
8. Schools you went to: ...dunno, this question isn't worth thinking about it.
9. Occupation: Student...I guess (still no job)
10. Residence: Salzgitter...you don't know this town.
11. Screen Names: Ir-Rational entity, Hector42

__Your Appearance___

12. Hair Colour: Dark brown...although, after trying to colour it black several times, it's more reddish brown now...
13. Hair Length: Rather long - about 60 cm or 23.6 inch.
14. Eye colour: Most the time some kind of ocean green...sometimes blue, sometimes grey.
15. Best Feature: Only one?! Hmmm...can't decide, too many and it's a matter of definition.
16. height: 370 times as high as a fly which is 0.5 cm (about 0.2 inch) high.
17. Braces?: Nope.
18. Glasses?: Always.
19. Piercing: ...but I don't have any and I guess I don't want any...just like them at other people.
20. Tattoos: Nope.
21. Righty or Lefty: Lefty! (But not radical... )

___Your 'Firsts'___

22. First best friend: Johan, in the kindergarten.
23. First Award: ...I got several awards for my skills in dacing the Vienna Waltz - just the usual dancing school competitions, does that count?! And I got an award for the best graduation as chemical-technical assistent from my school.
24. First Sport You Joined: Tennis...long time ago but today "sport" is a foreign word to me.
25. First Pet: Animal: Snake; Human: yet to come
26. First Real Vacation: Phew...dunno...maybe Canada...maybe Greece...maybe Yugoslavia...I was too young to remember.
27. First Concert: Blind Guardian, I think.
28. First Love: Define "love"! Serious love: propably ...

___ Favorites___

29. Movie: Ghost in the Shell, Final Fantasy.
30. TV Show: None...or what is meant with "show"? Battlestar Galactica.
31. Colour: ...black.
32. Rapper: ...nothing against rappers but that's nothing for me!
33. Band: Maybe Blind Guardian.
34. Song Right Now: "The Fallen Angel", Iron Maiden (Album: Brave New World)
35. Friend: atm: (also trying to avoid hard feelings )
36. Candy: Varies..."Twix" atm.
37. Sport to Play: Surfing on my keyboard through the web (yeah, I'm a poor entity

Grinded the 8-inch mirror until the rough-cut is nearly finished. You can see that there is a zone of the mirror nearly untouched by the grinding process, near the mirror's edge. (Honestly I just had another grinding session and now this zone is smaller than 2 mm...nearly finished the rough cut ):

The "crater" is 3.4 mm deep...that's a bit too much...obvioulsy I was a bit too crazy about grinding . I'll correct it to the desired 3.2 mm, otherwise this is called "bowl", you know, those things which come in very handy if you want to eat soup. A f/3.75 Newtonian mirror is not really a desirable thing.

OMG, I met a really crazy and creative guy here in Germany, he want's to make a movie and maybe we'll do a collab for the intro. That means that I'll do some animations in Mojoworld or Maya...but unfortunately one can't submit .avi's here . And my own webspace is propably way too small. But I'll see what I can do...standard Photoshop effects like "sumi-e" seem to look quite cool when animated...

This is a scene, rendered in Mojoworld with very low quality (this single frame took about 10 seconds), with the Photoshop "sumi-e" filter applied to it...now imagine this animated...I haven't seen this yet, but I guess it'll be cool.
This is just an experiment, not the actual collab.

Note:
Hey folks! There is this crazy guy ( ) who startet a close-up contest - even with prices - he's so crazy about this, that he wants to get as many people into the contest as possible. I know that I'm derceasing my chances to win when I tell you this, but what the heck...
So I guess everyone who is interested should go and check out his journal

Coming up:
I'll submit my selfmade telescope tube either as telescope making tutorial or as...dunno, some kind of sculpture?? I have to look which categories exist...
ornamental images to enhance my journals appearence
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya
hopefully I'll submit some more digital d...

Great Deviants and new featured favorites

~Hector42 — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 09:42:30 PDT
Recent journal entry:
Well, ok, I have cooled down from my encounter with my parents.

I just wanted to say that you all are great individuals and I like every single one of you. You all are different and every one of you has adorable special skills and passions. Being here on deviantART with you is a great pleasure and I really enjoy communication with you.
Hmm, what else could I say...dunno, you are great

I noticed that some skilled artists were banned these days...so I have to delete one image from my specially featured favorites cause it doesn't make sense to feature it anymore (although I still like it and the owner of that image didn't seem provocative to me).

But There is one image to take it's place, has made some very skilled and beautiful shots of our galaxy. You should go and check out the shots and the Deviant who is responsible for these

Note:
Hey folks! There is this crazy guy ( ) who startet a close-up contest - even with prices - he's so crazy about this, that he wants to get as many people into the contest as possible. I know that I'm derceasing my chances to win when I tell you this, but what the heck...
So I guess everyone who is interested should go and check out his journal

Coming up:
I'll submit my selfmade telescope tube either as telescope making tutorial or as...dunno, some kind of sculpture?? I have to look which categories exist...
ornamental images to enhance my journals appearence
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
enhancements of my astroshots using the Nikon D100 ( --> taking new shots instead of enhancing the older ones...however, I still plan to redo some of the older ones)
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
trying to do more studio macros and maybe other studio shots

Legend: = work in progress; [link]

And here is the result:

[link]

(first graph shows the error of my tester, second shows the wave error profile of my mirror (~ the error of it's shape; 3 test runs and the averaged graph are shown), last shows the most propable strehl ratio (= the quality of the mirror expressed in one single number - 1.000 is perfekt, 0.950 is nice)

Note:
Hey folks! There is this crazy guy ( ) who startet a close-up contest - even with prices - he's so crazy about this, that he wants to get as many people into the contest as possible. I know that I'm derceasing my chances to win when I tell you this, but what the heck...
So I guess everyone who is interested should go and check out his journal

Coming up:
I'll make a new avatar for me (or for you too, if you want), propably using 3D software
I'll submit my selfmade telescope tube either as telescope making tutorial or as...dunno, some kind of sculpture?? I have to look which categories exist...
ornamental images to enhance my journals a...

Bad weather...

~Hector42 — Sat, 27 May 2006 21:27:38 PDT
Recent journal entry:
...so, no advances in astrophotopraphy but still something to play with: My 3D skills have improved massively during the last few days - I'm hopefully able to do a composit of a Maya rendered air battle scene with an environment, rendered in Mojoworld. I have to do that because there is this image off all this (figthers, rockets, tanks) in my head and it's blowing my mind!! No, it's even nearly forcing my skull to explode!!
Although for this scene the fighters needn't to be this detailed, I'm trying to build detailed models...cause I alway loose myself in details. (and because they'll look cool )
So much to do until my head feels relieved...I'll update the display of my work here on dA as I advance in making this scene...I never got into 3D like...holy shit...I hope I can bring this.

Note:
Hey folks! There is this crazy guy ( ) who startet a close-up contest - even with prices - he's so crazy about this, that he wants to get as many people into the contest as possible. I know that I'm derceasing my chances to win when I tell you this, but what the heck...
So I guess everyone who is interested should go and check out his journal

Coming up:
I'll make a new avatar for me (or for you too, if you want), propably using 3D software
I'll submit my selfmade telescope tube either as telescope making tutorial or as...dunno, some kind of sculpture?? I have to look which categories exist...
ornamental images to enhance my journals appearence
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
enhancements of my astroshots using the Nikon D100 ( --> taking new shots instead of enhancing the older ones...however, I still plan to redo some of the older ones)
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
trying to do more studio macros and maybe other studio shots

Legend:

So crazy about imaging and processing!!

~Hector42 — Thu, 25 May 2006 11:36:18 PDT
Recent journal entry:
I finished processing the recent M13 an M51 images and it's soooo crazy! The only thing you need are MORE images...oh, I really want to take those additional 350 shots from M51 (right 350 more to go ). I think this will get really cool when I've got enough images (->low noise) to deconvolve the thing really effective. Just look at the M13 update!!

Note:
Hey folks! There is this crazy guy ( ) who startet a close-up contest - even with prices - he's so crazy about this, that he wants to get as many people into the contest as possible. I know that I'm derceasing my chances to win when I tell you this, but what the heck...
So I guess everyone who is interested should go and check out his journal

Coming up:
I'll make a new avatar for me (or for you too, if you want), propably using 3D software
I'll submit my selfmade telescope tube either as telescope making tutorial or as...dunno, some kind of sculpture?? I have to look which categories exist...
ornamental images to enhance my journals appearence
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
enhancements of my astroshots using the Nikon D100
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
trying to do more studio macros and maybe other studio shots

Legend: = work in progress; = could take a while; = currently frozen; = project canceled

Recent updates:
'M51 - project': more images added
'M13 - project': buried old raw images a...

...much better!

~Hector42 — Tue, 23 May 2006 23:13:25 PDT
Recent journal entry:
Ok, now I know why .raw (or .nef) is smaller than .tif and still the better choice...
Tonight I shot many images, about 60 for M51 and about 40 for M13. I'm currrently processing these projects, but a preview of M51 is already on dA. Check out 'M51 - project' for the update.
More updates following.
Some of you may know RegiStar already, I experienced, that combining 6 megapixel 16 bit .tiff files is very memory consuming. For a normal PC I have a monstrous 2.5 GB of RAM, that is just enough to register and combine 20 images in one go. RegiStar won't use virtual memory and it won't free memory when you close opened images you don't need anymore.
So either one can deal with that or one has to crop the images before stacking.
QuickSimon told me that Registax can't handle big images, so I guess I'll still use Registar (or maybe IRIS) for my processing.
Oh and did I tell you, that I can be on dA or process images or do whatever I want, while the telescope and the cam are taking these images?! I can!!
My polar alignment usually is good enough so that I don't have to worry about objects, that leave the field of view. The cam is set to "autofire" using a...how is this called...wire-trigger?! So it automatically takes a bunch of images and darkframes and substracts them...without me being present
Of course every 10 to 20 minutes I should have a look if everything is ok.

Note:
Hey folks! There is this crazy guy ( ) who startet a close-up contest - even with prices - he's so crazy about this, that he wants to get as many people into the contest as possible. I know that I'm derceasing my chances to win when I tell you this, but what the heck...
So I guess everyone who is interested should go and check out his journal

Coming up:
I'll make a new avatar for me (or for you too, if you want), propably using 3D software
I'll submit my selfmade telescope tube either as telescope making tutorial or as...dunno, some kind of sculpture?? I have to look which categories exist...
ornamental images to enhance my journals appearence
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
enhancements of my astroshots using the Nikon D100
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya
Ehehe
But why is the raw much smaller while it contains more information? This is really strange.
I knew that there still was something wrong...that means I'll make more tests, hoping that taking the images in raw format will have a noticable effect. Well I hope it'll have a REALLY noticable effect...
And if this has a cool effect, I'll consider burying ALL these former DSLR shots...mabe...we'll see...
And, yes, I know I'm crazy about putting these "projects" in my gallery but I really think that these will become nice Deviations some day...hope you don't find it too crappy at the moment - I promise to work on images and descriptions

Note:
Hey folks! There is this crazy guy ( ) who startet a close-up contest - even with prices - he's so crazy about this, that he wants to get as many people into the contest as possible. I know that I'm derceasing my chances to win when I tell you this, but what the heck...
So I guess everyone who is interested should go and check out his journal

Coming up:
ornamental images to enhance my journals appearence
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
enhancements of my astroshots using the Nikon D100
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
trying to do more studio macros and maybe other studio shots

Legend: = work in progress; = could take a while;

close-up competition

~Hector42 — Mon, 22 May 2006 13:31:49 PDT
Recent journal entry:
Hey folks! There is this crazy guy ( ) who startet a close-up contest - even with prices - he's so crazy about this, that he wants to get as many people into the contest as possible. I know that I'm derceasing my chances to win when I tell you this, but what the heck...
So I guess everyone who is interested should go and check out his journal

Coming up:
ornamental images to enhance my journals appearence
shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
enhancements of my astroshots using the Nikon D100
trying to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
other Mojoworld scenes are waiting to be rendered - the beach I promised is nearly completed...
real 3D stuff using Maya
hopefully I'll submit some more digital drawings - I'm practicing...from time to time...
trying to do more studio macros and maybe other studio shots

Legend: = work in progress; = could take a while; = currently frozen; = project canceled

Recent updates:

'DSLR Imaging Investigation' and 'M51 - project' work now (there was a problem with dA)
added some more lines about imaging to the 'DSLR Imaging Investigation' description

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Featuring personal favorites from my own gallery

_ _ _

What'll be next...

~Hector42 — Thu, 18 May 2006 13:15:26 PDT
Mood: melancholic, selfexpressive
Listening to: "Hotel California", "Dust In The Wind", Iced Earth, Within Temptation, HIM ()
Building: softboxes, 8 " Newtonian main mirror, water assisted cooling system (PC)
Trouble with: damaged HDD, damaged graphics adapter, damaged my fathers macro lens

Okay, the repair of that lens is...affordable...I think. 100 to 200 on the first glimpse.
That strikes a huge hole into my wallet, so I guess the IR filter and the webcam have to wait.
Fortunately my birthday isn't far, let's see how this will affect my financial situation.

coming up:
1. shots of some skaters I met, tried to freeze their jumps...but not totally
2. shots of water fountains - first experiences with freezing water in time
3. try to go on with that 'The Day After' stuff
4. trying to do more studio macros and maybe other studio shots

That's all for now, have a nice and productive day

Subscription

~Hector42 — Tue, 16 May 2006 18:40:31 PDT
Mood: melancholic, selfexpressive
Listening to: "Hotel California", "Dust In The Wind", Iced Earth, Within Temptation, HIM ()
Building: softboxes, 8 " Newtonian main mirror, water assisted cooling system (PC)
Trouble with: damaged HDD, damaged graphics adapter

After that 'Little Bonsai' studio macro, I decided to get a bit more into that stuff. But I don't want to sacrifice my wallet (IR filter and webcam are still waiting to be bought) so I'll start to build some simple softboxes to have a serious light setup for such tasks.
I also decided to subscribe to deviantART...it will take some more days until this annoing payment-thing is through but I could use this time to think about a new Journal-Style, I guess.

That's all for now, have a nice and productive day

Oh, beautiful day...

~Hector42 — Fri, 12 May 2006 20:24:00 PDT
Introduction:
Well, hello, although I've been thinking about it several days, I do't really know what to write to introduce myself.
I'm this kind of person who is never completely satisfied with himself and his work, this kind of person who wants to learn nearly everything - nevertheless I'm hopelessly lazy and therefore I always complain about the - seen from an astronomical viewpoint - frightening short lifetime of human beings.
Science, especially astronomy plays an important role in my life, the objects up in space - as well as space and physics itself - are of great aesthetics. Hopefully I'll soon be able to image them through a selfmade telescope (even with made-by-my-own-hands optics ).
Somehow I found great aethetics in other, more earth related things like pictures and art. I started working on 3D scenery, fractal landscapes and pure fractals quite a while ago. The pure fractals I don't consider art, so they propably won't appear here although I find them very beautiful.
Later I discovered the mighty postprocessing powers of Photoshop...
...and now I am discovering it's painting powers because I want to get in drawing and paiting. I use some hyper sophisticated programs like Maya too but I am for sure not able to get used of more than 10 % of their true power...maybe I'll learn.

Recent:
List of pics wich I'm going to redo if possible, sortet by propability (most propable at the top):

(x) The Great Orion Nebula - M 42 ---> 28.12.2005, larger scale
(x) Dumbell Nebula - M27 ---> 03.03.2006, added low quailty colour data
(x) Rainbow Deluxe ---> 13.03.2006, more intelligent use of the noisefilter
(_) The Whirlpool Galaxy - M51 (will add luminance and colour data)
(_) M81, M82 and NGC3077 (will add luminance and colour data)
(_) ...calm and quiet. (will render it at a larger scale)

Well, yesterday was beatiful! I went out and in the blue sky there was a single rain-cloud above our city. It brought not too much rain but a strong wind. I felt like I was in an Anime, when the leaves of the flowers started to rain down from the japanese cherry trees (?) and the wind swooshed pink clouds over the streets as if they were sand in a sandstorm or snowflakes in a blizzard. That was a crazy experience...too bad that I decided to leave the cam at home before all this began .

Mood: melancholic, selfexpressive

Listening to: "Hotel California", "Dust In The Wind", Iced Earth, Within Temptation, HIM ()

Building: 8 " Newtonian main mirror, water assisted cooling system (PC)

Trouble with: damaged HDD, damaged graphics adapter

That's all for now, have a nice and productive day

Drawings

~Hector42 — Sun, 07 May 2006 13:31:20 PDT
Introduction:
Well, hello, although I've been thinking about it several days, I do't really know what to write to introduce myself.
I'm this kind of person who is never completely satisfied with himself and his work, this kind of person who wants to learn nearly everything - nevertheless I'm hopelessly lazy and therefore I always complain about the - seen from an astronomical viewpoint - frightening short lifetime of human beings.
Science, especially astronomy plays an important role in my life, the objects up in space - as well as space and physics itself - are of great aesthetics. Hopefully I'll soon be able to image them through a selfmade telescope (even with made-by-my-own-hands optics ).
Somehow I found great aethetics in other, more earth related things like pictures and art. I started working on 3D scenery, fractal landscapes and pure fractals quite a while ago. The pure fractals I don't consider art, so they propably won't appear here although I find them very beautiful.
Later I discovered the mighty postprocessing powers of Photoshop...
...and now I am discovering it's painting powers because I want to get in drawing and paiting. I use some hyper sophisticated programs like Maya too but I am for sure not able to get used of more than 10 % of their true power...maybe I'll learn.

Recent:
List of pics wich I'm going to redo if possible, sortet by propability (most propable at the top):

(x) The Great Orion Nebula - M 42 ---> 28.12.2005, larger scale
(x) Dumbell Nebula - M27 ---> 03.03.2006, added low quailty colour data
(x) Rainbow Deluxe ---> 13.03.2006, more intelligent use of the noisefilter
(_) The Whirlpool Galaxy - M51 (will add luminance and colour data)
(_) M81, M82 and NGC3077 (will add luminance and colour data)
(_) ...calm and quiet. (will render it at a larger scale)

I submitted some really shitty drawings into my scraps folder, just if you are interested in my bad drawing skills (or if you want to tell me how to draw ). I'm going to practice...

Mood: melancholic, selfexpressive

Listening to: "Hotel California", "Dust In The Wind", Iced Earth, Within Temptation, HIM ()

Building: 8 " Newtonian main mirror, water assisted cooling system (PC)

Trouble with: damaged HDD, damaged graphics adapter

That's all for now, have a nice and productive day

Hi there...

~Hector42 — Wed, 03 May 2006 20:47:17 PDT
Introduction:
Well, hello, although I've been thinking about it several days, I do't really know what to write to introduce myself.
I'm this kind of person who is never completely satisfied with himself and his work, this kind of person who wants to learn nearly everything - nevertheless I'm hopelessly lazy and therefore I always complain about the - seen from an astronomical viewpoint - frightening short lifetime of human beings.
Science, especially astronomy plays an important role in my life, the objects up in space - as well as space and physics itself - are of great aesthetics. Hopefully I'll soon be able to image them through a selfmade telescope (even with made-by-my-own-hands optics ).
Somehow I found great aethetics in other, more earth related things like pictures and art. I started working on 3D scenery, fractal landscapes and pure fractals quite a while ago. The pure fractals I don't consider art, so they propably won't appear here although I find them very beautiful.
Later I discovered the mighty postprocessing powers of Photoshop...
...and now I am discovering it's painting powers because I want to get in drawing and paiting. I use some hyper sophisticated programs like Maya too but I am for sure not able to get used of more than 10 % of their true power...maybe I'll learn.

Recent:
List of pics wich I'm going to redo if possible, sortet by propability (most propable at the top):

(x) The Great Orion Nebula - M 42 ---> 28.12.2005, larger scale
(x) Dumbell Nebula - M27 ---> 03.03.2006, added low quailty colour data
(x) Rainbow Deluxe ---> 13.03.2006, more intelligent use of the noisefilter
(_) The Whirlpool Galaxy - M51 (will add luminance and colour data)
(_) M81, M82 and NGC3077 (will add luminance and colour data)
(_) ...calm and quiet. (will render it at a larger scale)

You may take the title of my recent favorite literally - if anyone of you wants to walk me, just let me know!
What a wonderful pic, isn't it?

That's all for now, have a nice and productive day