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Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

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Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#61

Post by jeswin »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #54
GMoromisato wrote: post #20

This is a classic example of a simple idea that no one had ever done before. The execution was complex, of course, and Andrew McCarthy is one of the most skilled astrophotographers. But once you get the idea, a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did. Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! You can bet McCarthy is already thinking some. p.s.: My brush with celebrity is that I saw an…

> a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did My personal definition of "genius," is someone who sees things from a different angle, and can express it in terms we can implement. It's not doing well on IQ tests; It's that ability to think "outside the box," and, crucially, to express that vision in terms that us normies can use.

There are all types of geniuses. By confining its definition to selected variants of "outside the box", you've defined a new box in a different coordinate system.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#63

Post by fy20 »

jeswin wrote: post #61
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did My personal definition of "genius," is someone who sees things from a different angle, and can express it in terms we can implement. It's not doing well on IQ tests; It's that ability to think "outside the box," and, crucially, to express that vision in terms that us normies can use.

There are all types of geniuses. By confining its definition to selected variants of "outside the box", you've defined a new box in a different coordinate system.

I somewhat agree that this isn't the only definition of genius, but this is a pretty important one. If you look back at the most successful scientists, they were not just mad scientists with grand ideas, they were also able to explain their ideas in ways that other people could understand and believe it's correct science.

Turning that back to HN. You may have an amazing startup idea, but you can't do it alone. You need to convince people to join your team, investors to give you funding and customers to buy your product. Yes, even scientists need to be good in sales.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#64

Post by bryantwolf »

schiffern wrote: post #30
causal wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is not just a ... Dead giveaway

AI-diom (n.) - an idiom which, while not exclusive to AI, is so frequent in AI output as to strongly suggest its use

I prefer ‘clankerism’

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#65

Post by pests »

dylan604 wrote: post #52
schiffern wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI some of those amazing shots were also taken by Andrew McCarthy. https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1611128761776492544/ https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1479541092693381120/ https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1837219848478412935/ https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1968658340679921925/

https://www.planetary.org/space-images/the-iss-and-the-moon https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Statio... https://www.universetoday.com/articles/spectacular-image-sho... Just so we don't all think one person is the only one to do this

I mean kinda? This thread is about a skydiver. That's a lot less consistent than the orbit of the ISS or some other satellite.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#66

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

jeswin wrote: post #61
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did My personal definition of "genius," is someone who sees things from a different angle, and can express it in terms we can implement. It's not doing well on IQ tests; It's that ability to think "outside the box," and, crucially, to express that vision in terms that us normies can use.

There are all types of geniuses. By confining its definition to selected variants of "outside the box", you've defined a new box in a different coordinate system.

Well … I’m not a genius.

I always did well in IQ tests, but I tend to look at things the way most folks do.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#67

Post by pmontra »

nullhole wrote: post #44
GMoromisato wrote: post #20

This is a classic example of a simple idea that no one had ever done before. The execution was complex, of course, and Andrew McCarthy is one of the most skilled astrophotographers. But once you get the idea, a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did. Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! You can bet McCarthy is already thinking some. p.s.: My brush with celebrity is that I saw an…

I had an idea for survey planes once. During calibration, they fly grid patterns, basically like a hashmark (#), to get overlapping data for comparison. Doing that kind of flight at night (makes sense for lidar! not so much for photo..), against a clear sky with at least some stars, and stacking the resulting photos, would give you a grid pattern of green/red/white aircraft running lights in front of the heavens.

I happen to live at the crossing of two major flight lines, E-W and N-S, so I might actually attempt to do that. Maybe a lot of 1 tenth exposures could be enough. Trial and errors to get started, as usual.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#68

Post by cosmic_ape »

Tbh, do not quite get the excitement around this picture. It was staged, and the stunt doesn’t appear to be particularly complex. A lot of logistics, sure. But seems like all there is to it is that someone just bothered to do it. So not clear what’s the additional value over photoshop.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#69

Post by dylan604 »

pests wrote: post #65
dylan604 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.planetary.org/space-images/the-iss-and-the-moon https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Statio... https://www.universetoday.com/articles/spectacular-image-sho... Just so we don't all think one person is the only one to do this

I mean kinda? This thread is about a skydiver. That's a lot less consistent than the orbit of the ISS or some other satellite.

It's also staged. They did it in multiple takes, and then composited out one of the takes with a mosaic of the clean sun. None of the others are composites, and none of the others got multiple takes

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#70

Post by dmurray »

dylan604 wrote: post #69
pests wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean kinda? This thread is about a skydiver. That's a lot less consistent than the orbit of the ISS or some other satellite.

It's also staged. They did it in multiple takes, and then composited out one of the takes with a mosaic of the clean sun. None of the others are composites, and none of the others got multiple takes

Source for it being a composite? The article says under the headline

> This is not photoshopped. That’s really a person falling in front of the Sun.

I haven't watched all the videos. From the Reddit thread, it sounds like it was photoshopped (using that as a generic term for photo editing with a computer) but in a way acceptable to the astrophotography community. I don't understand where those limits are: somewhere strictly between cropping the photo and photographing the skydiver in front of a white screen before pasting the silhouette into a picture of the sun.

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