Space Simulator

I'm not a big fan of games these days -- for the most part, there just isn't time, and really, there are so many better things a man can do with his life than play with a computer or a Playstation.



However, over the years, there were a few that captured my imagination -- one of them being Microsoft Space Simulator. What made Space Simulator something special was that it literally put you in a space craft and allowed you to do, go, or land anywhere that you wanted in the the solar system -- and it even had a feature that allowed a type of "fantasy" ship with drives that would get you up near light speed. With time accelleration, you could visit other stars -- and it all fell within the realm of 'real' physics. Of course, if you didn't know a whig about orbital mechanics, the game would do all the hard work for you and let you cheat -- nobody wants to learn math to play games, right? :)



I'd pretty much forgotton about it, but then I discovered a couple years back that someone had taken the idea and ran with it -- in an open source, freeware kind of way. The result was something called "Orbiter: Space Flight Simulator", and it is just exactly that. This is, first and foremost, a simulator of physics; while it is technically a 'game', there are no real objectives other than trying to get, say, the space shuttle into a stable orbit or to do the complex orbital calculations required to get your landlubber butt to the moon. And I really do mean that -- the game's website reccomends that anyone who wants to try the game read a large primer on orbital mechanics and physics. Learning how to get into a stable orbit takes quite a bit of time; learning to get to and dock with the ISS is nearly impossible, and a moon shot is so complicated that you wonder how in the hell anyone ever managed to do it.



Now, as far as the shuttle is concerned, the game is somewhat unrealistic in that it forces the player to manually fly the thing. The shuttle is mostly flown by computer; the astronauts generally sit there and run through checkflights, pressing buttons and flipping switches -- they aren't expected to manually roll and pitch the shuttle during the ascent and re-entry, at least up until the actual landing. But it's a great simulator of what it'd be like if you literally had to grab the stick of the shuttle and pilot it into space.



Anyhow, what makes this game interesting is that it actually makes you a bit smarter. If you can figure out how to get into orbit, you understand quite a bit more about physics than you did when you started, unless physics is already your specialty. If you can figure out how to execute an orbital transfer to Mars, you probably know more than most freshman Physics students about orbital mechanics. I've often thought that one of the best ways to learn things via computers is by experiments and simulations that allow you to play with settings and try different things and see what happens -- this game does exactly that.

Above is a video capture of a shuttle from launch to the beginning of orbital insertion (there is still a good 5 minutes of burn left after the end of this video, and a apoapsis burn on the other side of the planet, but that would be boring.)

Insane lightning photos

I don't tend to post too many links here, but this has to be seen:



Truely *incredible* lightning photos



As the thread describes, these are photos of lightning taken by a Frenchman in the northern Alps, looking down on the city of Geneva. I can't imagine the kind of courage it takes to step outside with a metal tripod when the base of the thunderstorm is almost level with you and you are looking *down* on lightning -- but the risk sure paid off in this case!

Broken Bow stormchase

Been a while since I've posted -- I've been a busy bee! Here are photos from a recent storm chase just north of Broken Bow, Nebraska, on June 6th.






I took the day off work and zipped over to Kearney to pick up my friend, Darren. We waited around for a bit looking at data, then decided to go north to Broken Bow. The cap was a serious issue that day -- I was pretty pessimistic about it breaking, really. We settled down at an awesome soda shop in 'downtown' Broken Bow -- and they weren't kidding about the soda shop thing, either; they had every soda concoction known to man.






After a while, a couple of guys who were sitting in the corner came up and said hi -- they turned out to be storm chasers too. Data starved chasers, at that; they'd driven all the way from Salt Lake City when their laptop gave out on them, and all they had for data was some nowcaster in California that kept calling them. Eventually the cap DID break; it was rather spectacular, too, as an outflow boundary from Colorado smashed into the retreating dryline and literally sent up a 200 mile long severe squall line in less than 15 minutes. This happened in a clear blue sky, mind you. On initiation, we drove east a bit and then north to try to keep up with a storm out ahead of the line. This was a bit of a task, as they were zipping to the northeast at 45 knots.






So, we got to Sargent, NE, and paused in the parking lot of a gas station to behold the insane squall that had formed. It was getting quite dark, and we tried to watching among the lightning flickers for any signs of a lowering. You don't usually get tornadoes in a squall line, but there actually was an embedded supercell to our southwest putting a brief tornado down near Broken Bow (DOH!).












Eventually, the squall started to catch up with us and we zotted east. As we were going east, the gust front caught us. We pulled over and got out as a rather large, rotating gustnado formed about 200 yards to our south. (No photos -- way too dark.) This actually startled me a bit; as I hadn't noticed it until Darren (who was driving) pointed it out. Right behind that was what the dark had hidden -- a haboob. Talk about getting dirt blasted -- I literally had dirt in my teeth when I got back into the car.






We moved on a bit more, then stopped when we got near another clearing. This is how dusty it is in the wake of a haboob!



In summary, no tornadoes seen, but all in all a very fun chase. I'm still hoping to see a great supercell this season, though time is starting to run out. Here's to hoping that I can get Darren a glimpse of his mothership before the year is out!



BTW, this picture was begging for this:

Today's photo is an abstract of some hay bales we ran across in rural Nebraska. These bales were right in front of a barn that Lanette shot -- so this is my proof, Lanette, that I wasn't stealing your shot! ;) Click to enlarge.

Love and Marriage

No updates lately -- I'm engaged! :) The above picture of me and my sweetheart, Jasmin, was taken by her father, Darren, with my camera. (Click to enlarge.) I love you, Yasmine!

Reeds and the Heron

Today's photos are of Holmes lake; one is an abstract of the reeds in the water, and the other is a Heron stalking a fish. It's such a wonderful park for being in the middle of a city. :) Click to enlarge.

Hey you guys!

Today's photos are some of the "fun" shots from my last photo excursion when Josh and Lanette came down to visit. :) We tend to end up taking a bunch of goofy pics of each other when we get bored.



That bridge kinda creeped me out -- the whole thing was held up with ropes, causing it to wobble around when you walked on it. It was a bit like Indiana Jones.



You'll also notice that Josh has the biggest hair in the known universe. I keep telling him he needs to make it a true 'fro!



Click any of the photos below to enlarge.

Holmes Lake Abstract #4

Some shadows on a bridge at Holmes Lake. Click to enlarge.

HDR shots from around

These are the last 3 HDR shots from my little photo jaunt with Josh and Lanette. The church is near Wahoo, Nebraska, and the courthouse is the official Wahoo courthouse. :) The photo of Josh is from Holmes lake; props to him for holding very, very still as I cycled through the stops. The courthouse and the church were all assembled in Photoshop from around 10 photos, 1EV brackets, tripoded and cable released. The shot of Josh was taken from 6 photos, 1EV brackets, tripoded and cable released. Click to enlarge.

Fishing

Here are a couple silhouette shots of a father and son fishing at Holmes Lake in Lincoln, Nebraska. I'm getting to the end of this series, so I think I'll post a photo blitz some time in the near future and move on to other topics. :) Click to enlarge.

Holmes Lake Candids

Today's photos are candids from the local Holmes Lake. The bottom one isn't the best shot, but what really gets me is... well, just look at it! I swear I didn't do any photoshop manipulation on it. It's just one of those funny products of juxtaposition. :) Click to enlarge.

Swimming into the Sunset

A duck swims into the sunset at Holmes lake here in Lincoln, Nebraska. I like the ripples in the water more than anything in this shot -- it gives it a bit of an abstract feel. Click to enlarge.

Sixth Sense

I dunno what it is, but sometimes when I'm shooting a candid of someone, they get a sixth sense and turn around and look at me. This woman was a good 50 yards away and had no idea I was pointing a camera at her. And then... :) Click to enlarge.

Great Blue Heron

While we were at Holmes Lake, we noticed a couple Great Blue Herons winging around. Eventually, one of them landed rather close to the banks. You'd think these birds would be afraid of guys with cameras, but they were more than happy to just sit there chilling by the side of the lake, stalking for fish. They are extraordinarily large birds; they remind me of the Sandhills Cranes. Click to enlarge.

Leap of Faith

A bluejay takes off in Pioneers Park in Lincoln, Nebraska. Normally I'd think this was a pretty boring photo, but to me the fact that he hasn't opened his wings up yet makes the whole thing seem a bit abstract. Click to enlarge.

Fishing at Dusk

A man fishes at dusk at Holmes Lake. This looks tranquil and relaxing and fun, and I suppose it probably was with enough bug spray. :) We photographers, though, packed it in for the night after getting assaulted by a brazillian midges and mosquites. (This was after pulling three ticks off me earlier in the day -- Nebraska may not be the Amazon, but it has its fair share of creepy critters!) Click to enlarge.

Holmes Lake Abstracts

With all the color and the texure at sunset at Holmes Lake on our last photo shoot, I had to try for a few abstract shots. :) We really do get the most incredible and colorful sunsets in Nebraska. Josh, who grew up in Nebraska and was back visiting from Vermont, mentioned that it's something that we take for granted here -- they just don't get the kinds of great sunsets in Vermont that we do here. Click to enlarge.

Mars Spaceport

Today's photo is of a spaceport on Mars.



Oh, OKAY, it's actually just a negative of a construction site. Jeeze, I can't get anything by you people. Click to enlarge. :)

Wahoo Church (II)

This is another HDR shot of the Wahoo church. I like this one a bit more; this is an HDR photo created by with 11 photos bracketed 1 stop apart, tripoded and cable released. Assembled, downsampled, and converted to BW with CS3. Yes, the sun really was behind it -- that's why it glows. :) Click to enlarge.

Llama Love

Today's photos are from my last photo excursion. Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska, we came across a farm with a pack of llamas. "Tina, you fat lard, come get some DINNER!"



While I was shooting, a mother llama started showing some love to her llama kid. Awwwwww! Baby llama drama. Click to enlarge. :)