Representation of a Hindu temple as Purusha, the Cosmic Being
cosmic
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mirador del fito, asturias, españa
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Impressive short film by Erik Wernquist, narrated by Carl Sagan
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The Jantar Mantar in Jaipur. This is one of 5 observatories built by Sawai Jai Singh. Built between 1728 and 1734, the Mantar is a series of different astronomical instruments. The instruments are still incredibly accurate at telling the time, the season, the date, etc.
Stairs to Samrat Yantra by guy_incognito on Flickr.
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Nancy Holt
Sun Tunnels.
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This digital project by Paris-based photographer Thierry Cohen is an imaginative tale about how urban landscapes might appear if we turned out all of the lights. In a big city glowing with street lamps, store signs, car headlights, and rows of illuminated apartment buildings, it’s almost impossible to see the stars in the sky. One project review says, “Atmospheric and light pollution combine to make looking into the urban sky like looking past bright headlights while driving.”
To bring a sense of nature back into these environments, Cohen has taken a bit of a scientific approach. He travels to places free from light pollution and captures the skies that rotate on the same axis as the urban skylines. Those same skies that were at some point visible above the cities are then superimposed into the darkened cityscapes.
The result is Darkened Cities, Cohen’s project in which cold, dark, and desolate cityscapes sit below these atmospheric wonders overhead. In a sense, Cohen is bringing a forgotten nature back into these places. His darkened landscapes are a frightening visual of what it might look like if a city had to be completely shut down. His images are a reminder of the magical beauty of nature and through this project, he encourages viewers to take a step back from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and to appreciate—most importantly, not take for granted—the natural world around us.
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Jantar Mantar, Jaipur, India, 1727-34
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ARCHITECTURAL COLOR SKETCHES | 288
Rasem Badran www.intbau.org
(via drawingarchitecture)
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Stunning Star Trail Photographs from International Space Station
NASA astronaut Don Pettit recently uploaded a gallery of photos to the Johnson Space Center’s Flickr page. Pettit on how he captured these amazing images:
“My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, the ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.”
Ed note: Here are the Hubble Space Telescope’s finest photos.
h/t Twisted Sifter
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AMAZING PHOTO!
“Photography is often used to capture a moment in time. But daring Greek photographer Chris Kotsiopoloulos aimed to discover if photography could capture an entire day.
The task was not easy. Kotsiopolous had to stay in the same place for 30 hours straight, and keep constant watch on the camera, even at night. The temperature dropped down to about 26 degrees, leading the fearless photographer to use a hair dryer to keep the lens dry. After the shoot, Kotsiopolous edited his hundreds of images together into one seamless whole.
The result is a staggering 360 degree panoramic shot of Sounio, Greece, captured from sunrise to sunset. Kotsiopolous told The Huffington Post: "All my photos have a long story to tell – a story that goes back to the creation of our solar system, the formation of the sun, the planets, the earth and the moon.”
His long exposure photo was taken with a Canon 550D DSLR camera.“- HuffPo
Morning on Mars /
6 Martian sunrises, as seen by the HiRISE orbiter. Once again, not artist’s renditions.
