Chris Howard's Blog, page 39
July 6, 2019
Little thunderstorm going through right now…
Little thunderstorm going through right now…
July 5, 2019
Play big. Play Loud. I’m still working on this painting,...
Play big. Play Loud. I’m still working on this painting, mostly detail stuff, filling in the left side a bit more. I’m up to about five hours in ArtRage 6, with lighting and tone work in CC. https://SaltwaterWitch.com
Wide Field, Narrow Band - Going to run some manual focus tests...
Wide Field, Narrow Band - Going to run some manual focus tests on my wide-field narrowband setup, if I can see the stars tonight. I just want to see if I have the backfocus correct for the Nikon f/2.8 180mm lens. I’m using a 2" Optolong 7nm Ha filter with the Atik 414EX mono CCD camera. No guiding with this tonight, but normally I would have the 130mm guide-scope and ZWOASI120MM-S on top of the aluminum camera/lens ring (ZWO 78mm Holder Ring for ASI Cooled Cameras). My hydrogen-alpha filter is in the AstroShop 2" Filter Drawer System with the tripod foot, which just adds more stability to this setup. You may also notice–if you’re familiar with the iOptron CEM25P–that I’m using the short counterweight bar with a single weight. I can carry this whole rig around without taking anything apart.
Work-in-progress for Sh 2-132 “Lion’s Mane”...
Work-in-progress for Sh 2-132 “Lion’s Mane” emission nebula on the border between Cepheus and Lacerta, about 10,000 lightyears away, and over 300 lightyears in diameter. This is why Cepheus is such a wonderful constellation. The Lion’s Mane is another giant HII region with ionization partially provided by two Wolf-Rayet stars, WR 152 and WR 153, which have blown out the rings you see in the image. I’m in the middle of capturing data for this. This is a fairly dim object–I only have about half the frames I want for Ha and OIII, and I haven’t even started SII capture yet. Here’s a bi-color Ha+OIII for the subs I’ve captured so far. William Optics GT81 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro mono camera, Astronomik filters, iOptron CEM25P mount.
neil-gaiman:
fuchsimeon:
neil-gaiman:
On the list of things...
On the list of things ABSOLUTELY NOBODY HAS EVER ASKED ME FOR. Here’s the dialogue from the TV show that the Young family are watching in Episode 3, before Adam heads off for an early night.
Wait so you wrote this and then someone acted it out and filmed it and then the actors had to act out watching it all for some background stuff???!!!
I love writing/creating
Not quite. (If I understand what you are asking correctly.) The actors acted watching a TV show. Then a year later, when we were doing the sound, Douglas the director asked me what they were watching, as we had a temporary soundtrack on of some thriller or other. So I wrote that, we recorded it with actors, and it’s mixed into the deep background of that scene…
July 4, 2019
Painting today, running with the idea of a completely artificial...
Painting today, running with the idea of a completely artificial entertainment group called Jump to the Stars–artificial as in androids, AI-driven music and visual art. They’re very popular, with shows at Wembley Arena, Coachella, Mars Dome, Europa Underground. All the big on and off world venues. http://SaltwaterWitch.com
July 3, 2019
I hung around Cepheus and shot several hours of sub-exposures...
I hung around Cepheus and shot several hours of sub-exposures last night, mostly focused on IC 1396, the “Elephant Trunk Nebula”, which is easy to make out near the center of the frame. This giant ionized gas region in Cepheus has some amazing dark bands of dust and other interstellar debris, blocking the light of more distant stars. Like there’s that little guy on the right I want to call the “Harry Potter casts an Imperio” nebula. Imaging notes: bi-color made up of 48 stacked subs in Ha and OIII, William Optics GT81 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro mono camera, Astronomik filters, iOptron CEM25P mount. https://SaltwaterWitch.com
July 2, 2019
Have you read The Mermaid Game in the anthology Mermaids and...
Have you read The Mermaid Game in the anthology Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep, edited by Paula Guran? This is a great compilation of oceany stories by Neil Gaiman, Cat Valente, Caitlin Kiernan, Peter Beagle, Gene Wolf, Elizabeth Bear, and a bunch more, including yours truly. I started scripting The Mermaid Game for a comic edition a while back, and I’ve sketched character concepts more recently. Not sure when this will officially get off the ground, but here are a couple panels from the beginning, when Kleariste returns Andy K’s wedding ring after it rolled off his boat into the Atlantic. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WFAQNP4
July 1, 2019
Okay, here’s my final for Seaborn art–for a little...
Okay, here’s my final for Seaborn art–for a little while. I finished up with ArtRage 6. I think I finally got the lighting right, I’m finally happy with Kassandra’s oceany crown. My favorite is the ice blades crown I did for the Complete Seaborn edition with all three books, but you have to change things up.
June 30, 2019
Kassandra from #Seaborn, Sea Throne. This is a crop / close-up....
Kassandra from #Seaborn, Sea Throne. This is a crop / close-up. I started this one in 2018, based on my original cover art for Seaborn, and I keep coming back to refine and play with the color and tone. I spent the majority of time painting in #ArtRage with some contrast work in CC https://SaltwaterWitch.com
