elysiumplain’s Channel – YouTube.

New Scientist TV: 3D moon flyover reveals greatest detail ever.

This flyover of the lunar surface gives the most comprehensive picture of the moon to date. Created by researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and NASA, the virtual ride is made up of 70,000 still images captured by a wide-angle camera aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) from an altitude of 50 kilometers.

The model highlights low-lying areas in blue and the highest regions in red and white. In the first clip, a full view of the lunar surface initially reveals the Earth-facing side of the moon, showing prominent flat plains that were used as landing sites for the Apollo missions.

As the model rotates, the dark side of the moon, which faces out toward space, becomes visible. It’s home to the lowest crater, roughly 9100 metres deep, as well as the highest mountains that reach an altitude of 10,760 metres.

Subsequent clips zoom in on the South Pole-Aitken basin, a large impact crater on the far side of the moon, and the landing sites of Apollo 15 and Apollo 17.

…….

We’ve seen lots of timelapse videos lately from the International Space Station, as the astronauts have just recently started shooting long sequences of images enabling the creation of these stunning videos made from still photos. This video was put together by one of the photographers himself — Ron Garan — who returned home on September 16, 2011 after spending about six months in space. Today on his blog, Fragile Oasis, Garan explained how the genesis of time-lapse photography on the ISS came from a suggestion from Katrina Willoughby, a photography instructor for the astronauts.

“I hadn’t tried time-lapse yet because I overestimated how hard it would be to capture great images, and the time-lapse photography I had seen to date didn’t seem as impressive as the still imagery we had been taking with some of the new equipment onboard,” Garan said.

But he set up a Nikon D3S camera in the Cupola on the space station (see an awesome picture of him, below, working in the Cupola), took some practice shots, and worked on getting the right settings, then set up the camera to take about 500 pictures at 3-second intervals.

“When I saw the results, I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep!” Garan said, adding that these videos really do give a great representation of what the view is like from space.

Time Lapse From Space – Literally. The Journey Home. from Fragile Oasis on Vimeo.

Warsaw protester launches drone to spy on police

By David Edwards

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Print

480

Drone spies on Warsaw riot police

Topics: riot gear ♦ riot police ♦ unmanned aerial vehicle

During protests in Warsaw last weekend, one crafty activist deployed a flying drone to spy on riot police.

YouTube user latajacakamera — or “flying camera” in Polish — uploaded the amazing video that the drone effortlessly captured as it hovered over teargas-filled streets.

In another video, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) floats in front of a formation of police in riot gear as they rush towards demonstrators. None of them appear to notice.

Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson confirmed that the flying machine was built by the Polish company Robokopter.

Watch this video from latajacakamera, uploaded to YouTube Nov. 12, 2011.

(H/T: Danger Room)

via Warsaw protester launches drone to spy on police | The Raw Story.