Tag: Nasa

Science and Art

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What topics do you like to discuss?

That’s why I like trying to paint astronomical pictures, like this tryptic of Jupiters pole based on the photos by NASAs Juno probe.

I’ve always been interested in both subjects, I wouldn’t say I was an expert, I will always check my facts if I write about science, but I enjoy thinking things through. And having a visual mind helps me imagine how things work.

Art is my first love, I worry that I will find it increasingly difficult to create since my diagnosis with Parkinsons disease. I would be bereft if I could not continue. I hope that better treatment becomes available, another reason for being interested in science

Two galaxies

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Two galaxies in line of sight. Taken by the hubble space telescope. They are not colliding but are completely separate, (like the moon going in front of the sun).

Imagine how big the view of one galaxy would be from the other one? If we were on  a planet there half the sky would be dazzling and full of stars, the other half facing the dark of space. It could be amazing!

Artemis probe

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I saw there is an unmanned mission to the moon called Artemis. Its from NASA and its part of a plan to send a team including woman and a person of colour to the moon. Its fifty three years since the first men landed on the Moon.

I looked up Artemis and she was the Greek goddess of hunting, Similar to the roman goddess Diana. I suppose its a good name for it. I wonder when it will happen. I hope it does. I think it’s possible, but I really think it’s unlikely that we will ever go to Mars?

Mosaic

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Digital mosaic of a coastline. I was watching a programme about Nasa’s Perseverence Rover on Mars tonight and saw that it is due to try and climb the delta into a crater on Mars called Jezero crater. It struck me how the martian landscape is very similar to ours. There was water on the planet a few billion years ago which filled the crater. This could be one of the places where they find evidence of life on Mars.

Jupiter progress.

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Note the first photo is the latest version.

For some reason they came out opposite to how I posted them. Here are two parts of my Jupiter tryptich based on a photo Jupiter in the rear view mirror by Nasa. Taken as the Juno probe flew by Jupiter.

The challenge is to finish one panel by Friday. The other two will be painted on our Open days, 16th and 17th of November 2018 when we join with the Stoking Curiosity event. Run in conjunction with Keele University and Staffordshire University.  There are a series of talks and lectures over the two days based on the integration of art and science.

Given I love astronomy I decided on this subject. Forgetting that I don’t have a working printer and that my computer is on the blink. I have to thank Mike and Nick at Spode for printing me off black and white photos and then colour images. I would not have got this far without them….. So I’m struggling with the complexity of Jupiter. I’m working on an image from above one of the poles where the oranges and reds of the main bulk of the planet turn to sombre blues browns and dark greys.

My shoulders and arms ache. Although I’m just trying to get one panel finished I have to work across two of them so they fit together and I can orientate where the blotches and patterns are. Please don’t expect perfection..I will try to see how it comes out. If you are around Stoke for Stoking Curiosity come along. I will be in studio 21 at Spode.

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