APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

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APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by APOD Robot » Sat Jan 02, 2021 5:05 am

Image 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon

Explanation: In the mid 19th century, one of the first photographic technologies used to record the lunar surface was the wet-plate collodion process, notably employed by British astronomer Warren De la Rue. To capture an image, a thick, transparent mixture was used to coat a glass plate, sensitized with silver nitrate, exposed at the telescope, and then developed to create a negative image on the plate. To maintain photographic sensitivity, the entire process, from coating to exposure to developing, had to be completed before the plate dried, in a span of about 10 to 15 minutes. This modern version of a wet-plate collodion image celebrates lunar photography's early days, reproducing the process using modern chemicals to coat a glass plate from a 21st century hardware store. Captured last November 28 with an 8x10 view camera and backyard telescope, it faithfully records large craters, bright rays, and dark, smooth mare of the waxing gibbous Moon. Subsequently digitized, the image on the plate was 8.5 centimeters in diameter and exposed while tracking for 2 minutes. The wet plate's effective photographic sensitivity was about ISO 1. In your smart phone, the camera sensor probably has a photographic sensitivity range of ISO 100 to 6400 (and needs to be kept dry ...).

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Ann
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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by Ann » Sat Jan 02, 2021 7:52 am

Woman in the Moon.png
Woman in the Moon, smiling in Egyptian profile
via mid-19th century technology. Wet-plate collodion photo: Mike Smolinsky.
Well, the Woman in the Moon is there in any case, wet or dry.

I guess she's pretty dry. Parched, in fact.

And then we can spend some time contemplating the advancement of science and technology since they heyday of the wet-plate collodion process. Just think of 2001- A Space Odyssey, where the "see your telephone interlocutor while talking to them" technology was as exotic and sci-fi-like as the manned mission to Jupiter.

Then again, some things haven't changed like our 19th up to mid-20th century prophets expected them to. We are still very far from sending any sort of manned mission to Jupiter. And while monoliths are cropping up everywhere on Earth from Nevada outwards these days, we haven't been on the Moon since 1972 to look for them on dear old Luna. :wink:

Ann
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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by heehaw » Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:42 am

It puzzles me that there seem to be NO drawings or sketches of 'the Man in the Moon' before the telescope. Why? They are clearly visible, why did no one produce drawings of them? They could have discovered libration if they'd done it systematically! https://www.nature.com/articles/460957a

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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by orin stepanek » Sat Jan 02, 2021 1:12 pm

heehaw wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:42 am It puzzles me that there seem to be NO drawings or sketches of 'the Man in the Moon' before the telescope. Why? They are clearly visible, why did no one produce drawings of them? They could have discovered libration if they'd done it systematically! https://www.nature.com/articles/460957a
WetCollodionLunar112820SMO_1024.jpg

If you look real close Ann's woman in the Moon may be kissing the man in tge moon! :wink:
Orin

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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by neufer » Sat Jan 02, 2021 1:50 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.



You know... I bought into the wet-plate collodion
process at 7 ... it must be up to millions by now!
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by neufer » Sat Jan 02, 2021 2:23 pm

heehaw wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:42 am
It puzzles me that there seem to be NO drawings or sketches of 'the Man in the Moon' before the telescope. Why? They are clearly visible, why did no one produce drawings of them? They could have discovered libration if they'd done it systematically!

https://www.nature.com/articles/460957a
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/002182861104200205 wrote:
THE SELENOGRAPHIA OF WILLIAM GILBERT::
HIS PRE-TELESCOPIC MAP OF THE MOON
AND HIS DISCOVERY OF LUNAR LIBRATION
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by johnnydeep » Sat Jan 02, 2021 2:31 pm

heehaw wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:42 am It puzzles me that there seem to be NO drawings or sketches of 'the Man in the Moon' before the telescope. Why? They are clearly visible, why did no one produce drawings of them? They could have discovered libration if they'd done it systematically! https://www.nature.com/articles/460957a
Perhaps the people back then (*) had more common sense and weren't as susceptible to concocting fanciful visions of imaginary things that don't really exist :wink:

(*) - Percival Lowell and his Martian Canals notwithstanding.
Last edited by johnnydeep on Sat Jan 02, 2021 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by XgeoX » Sat Jan 02, 2021 2:35 pm

Everybody sees something different...

Erotic...
Image

Grumpy...
Image

Frenchie...
Image

Lymie...
Image

And finally... wtf?
Image

Eric
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Tszabeau

Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by Tszabeau » Sat Jan 02, 2021 3:10 pm

I’m writing this with a quill pen, a piece of charcoal and some spit.

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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by Chris Peterson » Sat Jan 02, 2021 3:21 pm

Tszabeau wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 3:10 pm I’m writing this with a quill pen, a piece of charcoal and some spit.
At least your quill pen is attached to the Internet. I have no way of sharing with you my own cave wall painting.
Chris

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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by Mike Smolinsky » Sat Jan 02, 2021 8:21 pm

hi all - a little more detail on my wet-plate process:

Target: November 28, '20, Clinton NJ "Penumbra" backyard observatory, moon 98% illuminated; waxing gibbous
Image train: 840mm f/7 refractor, projecting through 12mm 92 degree FOV eyepiece
Sensor: 8x10 plate, cadmium bromide & ammonium bromide & potassium iodide + alcohol/ether collodion, sensitized in 9% silver nitrate solution for 3 minutes
Sensitivity: ISO 1-2, 400-500 nm (ultraviolet to blue)
Exposure program: 1x2 minutes
Actual image size: 85mm
Processing: 30 seconds ferrous sulfate developer, 2 minutes ammonium thiosulfate fixer, 10 minute water wash, protect with gum sandarac & lavender oil varnish

My early attempts without tracking were pretty "smudged". On these, I just did eye-piece projection into the view camera with the front lens board removed. My conundrum was how to mount a 10+ pound view camera about 6-8 inches beyond the eyepiece.
My "solution" was to eliminate almost all of the view camera except the rear standard that holds the ground focusing glass and the the plate holder. This I mounted with a 36" aluminum 1x1 inch box rail to the top-plate of my telescope and rebalance. I think my limiting factor for image sharpness is the rigidity of the long rail with wind, vibrations etc. I have plans to tighten this all up and then increase magnification.

My goal is to try and match the detail in the December 5 APOD of Mons Rumker.

Mike Smolinsky

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Re: APOD: 21st Century Wet Collodion Moon (2021 Jan 02)

Post by neufer » Sat Jan 02, 2021 9:17 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 3:21 pm
Tszabeau wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 3:10 pm
I’m writing this with a quill pen, a piece of charcoal and some spit.
At least your quill pen is attached to the Internet. I have no way of sharing with you my own cave wall painting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus_Quill wrote:
<<Oculus Quill is a painting and animation software for virtual reality. It runs on Microsoft Windows with Oculus Rift headsets. It's used to create 3D paintings and animated cartoons. The software works on Oculus Rift utilizing its 6DoF motion controllers. Users can paint in 3D space using their hands naturally, and animate those paintings with keyframes. They can also capture videos and photos of their creations. Quill was released on November 29, 2016 on the Oculus Store. Quill Theater, an application for viewing creations made in Quill, was later made available following the release of the Oculus Quest.>>
Art Neuendorffer

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