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Unless you are actively giving CPR to an accident victim at this very moment, drop whatever you are doing and watch this stunning, mind-blowing time lapse video of the Earth at night, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station: |
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Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo. |
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Holy. Haleakala. Make sure that’s set to HD and make it full screen. The video, taken by astronauts and edited by Michael König, was from a high-resolution camera with low-light abilities, so it can see faint sources of light. The footage was all taken from August to October 2011. I’m so overwhelmed by the beauty and coolness of this video I’m not sure which part I like best! The cities streaming by underneath; the instantly recognizable outlines of familiar places like the Great Lakes or the boot of Italy; the incredible flickering thunderstorms — giving you an understanding that there are always thousands of such storms all over the planet at any one time; the incredible 3D view of the green and red aurorae which you can actually see as towering structures dozens or even hundreds kilometers in height; the stars rising and setting and spinning over the horizon; the reflection of the Moon on the Earth below following along our point of view at 2:50 into the footage; or the thin glowing arc above the horizon: airglow, caused by molecules in the upper atmosphere slowly emitting light as they release energy accumulated during the day. It’s all fantastic. There have been plenty of beautiful time lapse videos of the Earth from the ISS — most notably, one from September — but this sets a new standard. Not the least of which because it’s so smooth; the sense of motion, the sense of flying, is overpowering. But the sheer magnificence of the entire video is simply incredible. Credit: NASA, Michael König, who used photos from NASA’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of the Earth site. |
Another jaw-dropping time lapse video: Tempest
| Randy Halverson is a photographer who makes incredibly stunning time lapse videos of the sky. And he’s done it again: "Tempest Milky Way", an aptly-named video showing the serene depths of the night sky as a background for furious activity much closer to home: |
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[Make sure it's set to HD, and make it full screen. You're welcome.] |
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Holy wow! It’s beautiful enough just showing the stars, but then at 2:20 things really get interesting as storms blow in. There’s lots to see, but keep your eyes open at 1:57 for the silhouette of a whitetail deer on the horizon, and at 3:24 for a meteor that pops into view… and is reflected in the lake! It’s a breath-taking shot, isn’t it? And it’s a testament to Halverson’s talent, which you can see more of at his website DakotaLapse. I love how the motion of the camera (especially moving up through the corn field) adds a magical sensation to the video. And while time lapse photography like this shows us a dimension we can’t see easily with our own eyes, it’s real nonetheless. Never forget that: the Universe is beautiful, spectacular, and marvelous. Our job is to appreciate it, and try to understand it better. Credit: Randy Halverson |
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/11/13/jaw-dropping-space-station-time-lapse/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/08/23/another-jaw-dropping-time-lapse-video-tempest/
Time-lapse photography ~ About
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| The flower of a geranium opening over a period of about two hours. Consecutive frames are 7 minutes apart. |
Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. For example, an image of a scene may be captured once every second, and then played back at 30 frames per second; the result would be an apparent increase of speed by 30 times. Time-lapse photography can be considered to be the opposite of high speed photography.
Processes that would normally appear subtle to the human eye, such as the motion of the sun and stars in the sky, become very pronounced. Time-lapse is the extreme version of the cinematography technique of undercranking, and can be confused with stop motion animation.
History:
Some classic subjects of timelapse photography include:
- cloudscapes and celestial motion
- plants growing and flowers opening
- fruit rotting
- evolution of a construction project
- people in the city
The technique has also been used to photograph crowds, traffic, and even television. The effect of photographing a subject that changes imperceptibly slowly, is to create a smooth impression of motion. A subject that is changing quickly already is transformed into an onslaught of activity.
How time-lapse works
Film is often projected at 24 frame/s, meaning that 24 images appear on the screen every second. Under normal circumstances a film camera will record images at 24 frame/s. Since the projection speed and the recording speed are the same, the images onscreen appear to move normally.
Even if the film camera is set to record at a slower speed, it will still be projected at 24 frame/s. Thus the image on screen will appear to move faster.
The change in speed of the onscreen image can be calculated by dividing the projection speed by the camera speed.
So a film that is recorded at 12 frames per second will appear to move twice as fast. Shooting at camera speeds between 8 and 22 frames usually falls into the undercranked fast motion category, with images shot at slower speeds more closely falling into the realm of time-lapse, although these distinctions of terminology have not been entirely established in all movie production circles.
The same principles apply to video and other digital photography techniques, however until very recently video cameras have not been capable of recording at variable frame rates.
Time-lapse can be achieved with some normal movie cameras by simply clicking individual frames manually. But greater accuracy in time-increments and consistency in the exposure rates of successive frames are better achieved through a device that connects to the camera's shutter system (camera design permitting) called an intervalometer. The intervalometer regulates the motion of the camera according to a specific interval of time between frames. Today, many consumer grade digital cameras, including even some point-and-shoot cameras have hardware or freeware intervalometers available.[4] Some intervolometers can also be connected to motion control systems that move the camera on any number of axes as the time-lapse photography is achieved, creating tilts, pans, tracks, and trucking shots as the speeded up motion is viewed. Ron Fricke is the primary developer of such systems, which can be seen in his short film Chronos (1992) and his feature film Baraka (1992, released to video in 2001).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-lapse_photography)
An-introduction-to-time-lapse-photography