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Space art link courtesy of me

Beyond Earth by Stephen Di Donato

Beyond Earth is an awesome art project by Stephen Di Donato, a Montreal-based graphic designer. He created this 60s-looking posters of the planets complete with enlarged pixels and tacky colors, nostalgic! Actually 70s is the peak of space exploration, but they’re kinda similar aren’t they? Let’s comment about these posters!

PS: he made a merchandise of these, check more about them.

Mercury. The crisscrossing lines on Mercury is probably a reference to the the numerous crack and faults (graben) on it. He also depicts the elongated orbit of Mercury. I love how he include the Sun here, personally my favorite.

 

Venus. This is definitely a depiction of Venus’ surface instead of its atmosphere. Reminds me of traffic lights, perhaps he was inspired from the radiant heat of an oven or something. The poster seems kinda hot as well isn’t it?

 

Earth. Super 60s with the nuclear-like Earth with orbits of satellites. The moon looks sinister with its darker surface.

 

Mars. So many detailed information on this one. Those stamp-like explanations reminds me of Body Shop, I like it. Stephen also shared with us some of his older work of Mars.

 

Jupiter. Not much to say, the description of Jupiter here is a bit unexpected. I love the gradient pixels.

 

Saturn. Good depiction of Saturn’s oblong shape, very rare with the art these days. I like those grid thing on the background, and the composition is nice. Also one of my favorite.

 

Uranus. To be honest I don’t really dig the depiction of Uranus here. Kinda boring, like the planet itself, so … it’s kinda appropriate I guess.

Neptune. Neptune is so grey isn’t it, if you lined this with the other planet, it looks more like Enceladus because of its whiteness, or like a greyscale of Jupiter. It does show the dynamic windy atmosphere of Neptune though. I also really like the depiction of the line with the dark and white dots, probably to mark the unique opposite orbit’s direction for Triton in respect with Neptune, but then again, should Neptune’s be all the way around, with the white dot on top and dark top on bottom? I think it should be the other way around seriously.

 

All and all, really stylish posters :D

 

Source:

stephendid.it (Stephen’s homepage)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beyondearth/beyond-earth-a-poster-series (More about the projects)

Gravity (2013) – Spoiler Alert

Do not read when you haven’t watched the movie.

source: U-T San Diego

Beautiful movie in its surreal depiction of space, something that most of us will never experience for the rest of our pathetic life. I LOVE this movie (watched this in IMAX 3D), even though it gets a bit boring in the middle, especially the part when Sandra and George (can’t remember the astronauts’ name in the movie) drift from Hubble to ISS.

 

  Source: Work Hard Play Hardest

Sure there are inaccuracies, but who care? I do!!! (haha) but in this case, the inaccuracy doesn’t kill the realism of the movie. I mean, it’s not a documentary, it’s a movie! And you don’t watch movies merely to look for the mistakes, do you? I say this movie is as close as it gets to an accurate depiction of microgravity environment. This reminds me of the movie Armageddon, one of the space-themed movie which I hate because of its horrible depiction of space: fire on asteroid? jumping? yelling? wth.  

 

Here are some memorable scenes for me:

 

Beautiful space. Source: Space 

1. The beginning of the movie, with Clooney hovering around a shuttle while listening to a country music. He reminds me of Buzz Lightyear for some reason.

 

 

2. The first collision. Love how the lack of sound makes the explosion more horrifying. You can see all the scrappy details as Hubble and the shuttle seems like falling down to Earth in the background. Poor Sandra has to deal with all the mess.

 

3. The emptiness. The trailer of Sandra catapulted into empty space was traumatizing, but after seeing it again and again in Youtube, it gets old. When I watched the movie I was like “yeah, saw that in the trailer”. Still, love it when the sun light turns white, red, and then black as Sandra moved further into the night side, and the moon rises… really cool.

 

Dead astronaut. Source: Cinema Vine

4. I jumped when a dead astronaut appears from the mangled cockpit and the music got really loud. Dead Space came into my mind. And then: THEY MUST MAKE A DEAD SPACE MOVIE!

 

IInterior of the ISS. Source: Cinema Vine

5. Sandra reached ISS and jump from point to point. Dead Space! Also there’s this floating fire and mechanical pencils floating around in the abandoned station. Very cool.

 

Source: Cinema Vine, Rotten Tomatoes

6. Sandra using a fire extinguisher? Wall-E?

 

Source: Ashvegas

7. The ISS destroyed and fell. OMG the details… the orange parachute helps :D!

 

Source: Shuanganigans

8. Let’s get philosophical! Sandra’s fetus-like position in the ISS, the lullaby, the watery scene, and Sandra merging from the water to walk. Holy metaphor!

 

Overall, I LOVE this movie. The simple plot makes the movie seems more realistic. There’s even moral in the end of the story! I learned that some people think that the plot is too short and simple, but personally I don’t really want a Shyamalan style plot for Gravity. To me, the simplicity of the plot actually add a good value for the movie. So I really LOVE this movie! That’s an A from me.

David Stamatis’s 3 Juno

Seems that the graph explains about the nature of 3 Juno’ form, the gravity formed around the asteroid, and the interior of the asteroid? Not sure what this is… 

…but it sure looks neat, especially that asteroid’s shape comparison picture!

SUPRASTUDIO is one of the – experimental - studio in UCLA’s Faculty of Architecture and Urban Design. Probably similar with TU Delft’s Hyperbody, not really sure. They create some really beautiful concept of form-making. Check out this video.

Video’s screencaps

Back to Juno, check out the other graph of the asteroid!

Source:

David Stamatis’s Blog

Historic Pegasus & Equuleus

Pegasus is one of constellation with the least variation in appearance. Pegasus as we know today was depicted almost similar with the original Pegasus, although we can see the decreasing wing size.

Sources said that Equuleus was first introduced by the Greeks as Ippou Protome (“bust of a horse”), but it is hard to find a Grecian image of Equuleus, so I’m not really sure. Plus there was the third horse introduced by the Muslims. So… could this be the original Equuleus? 

 

Farnese Atlas (around 200 BC) has Pegasus in it but no Equuleus. Source: Athena’s Web Weekly Column

 

Leiden Aratea (816 AD). Eeeeek. Source: Leiden Aratea

 

Limoges Aratea (early 11th century). Equuleus not apparent in this book. Source: Limoges Aratea

 

9th century Assyrian scholar Hunayn ibn Ishaq. Equuleus was not apparent, but there is a constellation al Faras al Tamm made out of eastern wing of Cygnus, Pegasus’ chest, Equuleus, and Lacerta’ tail. I personally think this is Equuleus, although one sources claim it is a completely different constellation. source: Kitab Suwar al Kawakib

Hyginus’ Poeticon Astronomicon (1482).  No Equuleus either. Source: Naval Oceanography Portal

 

  

Johannes Regiomontanus’s Kalendarius (1512). Not sure with this, but it seems that the complete Pegasus is in fact Equuleus (mentioned under the name fullen, a name for Equuleus in German). Source: Kalendarius teütsch Maister Joannis Küngspergers

 

A page from Peter Apian (1532) depicting Pegasus with a bridle. Noot sure if there’s Equuleus in this one. Source: Deutsche Fotothek

 

 

Mercator Globes (1551). To me, the earliest representation of Equuleus as a bust of horse. Source: The Mercator Globes

 

Zacharias Bornmann’s Astra (1596). Source: Astra

 

Bayer’s Uranometria (1624). Source: USNO and Rare Maps

 

 

Hevelius’s in his Uranographia (1687) depicts Aquarius’s head encroaching onto the heads of  Pegasus and Equuleus. This might have significance: To compensate the father of Ganymedes, King Laomedon of Troy, for abducting his son Zeus gave him two horses. Source: Rare Maps

John Flamsteed Atlas Coelistis (1776) has an out of proportion Pegasus, very usual of his map. With his map, seems like Pegasus is losing his wings, his wings becoming smaller, almost tucked in to its body. Source: Rare Maps

Johann Bode’s Uranographia (1801). Source: Tartu Observatory Virtual Museum

Alexander Jamieson’s A Celestial Atlas (1822). Source: Wikipedia

 

Urania’s Mirror (1825). Source: Selefa 

 

Pegasus and Equuleus cloth from Saint Seiya (1986). Source: Saint Seiya Wiki 

Historic Centaurus & Lupus – The vines and the spear

The constellation Centaurus, closely associated with Lupus and Crux, changed a lot as history progressed. The original Centaurus was probably depicted as a Centaur, holding a hunted animal Therion (usually a goat) and a flask in one hand, and holding a spear with a rabbit hanging from it in the other.

Farnese Globe (2nd century Roman copy, believed to represent a Greek star map during the time of Hipparchus 129 BC). Here Lupus is not held in Centaurus’ hand. Source: The Farnese Globe Controversy

 

 

Limoges Aratea (early 11th century). Source: Limoges Aratea

Muslim period prefers the depiction of Lupus as a lion-like animal, called al Sabu’ (“the wild beast”), not to be confused with al Asad (“the lion”). The Muslim was also the first to introduced the idea that the sacrificed animal is held at its hind paws.

9th century Assyrian scholar Hunayn ibn Ishaq. The spear is replaced with a vine here, following the traditional Arabic rendition of some of the stars as Al Kadb al Karm, “the Vine Branch” and sometimes as Al Shamarih, “the broken-off Palm Branches loaded with dates” which Kazwini described as held out in the Centaur's hands. Some thought that the vine branch represents’ the Greek thyrsus, Dionysus’ vine staff. Source: Kitab Suwar al Kawakib

Ottoman era (1717) depiction of Centaurus and Lupus based on writings by Zakariya al Qazwini’s (13th century). Source: The Art Walters Museum

Another Muslim depiction of Centaurus and the Wild Beast in a 15th century interpretation of Sufi (10th century). There is no spear in here, similar to the depiction of Centaurus in 9th century Kitab Suwar al Kawakib. depicted as a lion. Source: Google image, Saudi Aramco World

Source:

Liber der Locis Stellarum Fixarum (14th century) is clearly based from the Muslim depiction of the constellations. Source: Scientific Library

Lapidario of King Alfonso X of Castile (13th century), still influenced with the Arabic depiction of the vine. Source: Gerald la Favre

Hyginus’ Poeticon Astronomicon (1482). This is the first time where the hare, the water container appears (where the libation is kept). Grotius called this canteen, “Arma”. The sacrificed beast is now identified as a small goat, much smaller in size than the previous lion and even the precious unidentifiable animal in Farnese Globe. Source: Naval Oceanography Portal

 

Hyginus (1488). Source: Constellation of Words

Johannes Regiomontanus’s Kalendarius (1512). Source: Kalendarius teütsch Maister Joannis Küngspergers

 

16th century showed some of the first sign of the sacrificial animal appearing as a wolf. Bayer is the first to officially named it Lupus, “wolf”.

 

Mercator Globes (1551). The Arabic vines is fused with the Greco-Roman spear. Source: The Mercator Globes

Zacharias Bornmann’s Astra (1596). Source: Astra

 

 

Aratus, Solensis Hug. Grotii Syntagma Arateorum (1600) follows Hyginus depiction of Centaurus. Source: Linda Hall Library

 

Bayer’s Uranometria (1624) and its colored version. The vined spear reappears. Source: Mexican Sky, Rare Maps

 Colored version of Hevelius’s Uranographia (1687). Source: Rare Maps 

Being an almost southern constellation, many modern maps of Centaurus shows it as part of the group around Hydra, so it is actually kinda difficult to find a decend image of Centaurus.

 

Johann Bode’s Uranographia (1801). Source: Ian Ridpath’s Star Tales 

1987 David O. Miller Con*Stellation T-shirt art (1998). So retro… Source: Con-Stellation