3-D Astromania!

I have to tell you, I am completely blown away by astrophotographer, J-P Metsavainio's portfolio of astrophotography work. I mean, words fail when you start poking around his website, Astro Anarchy, and seeing some of the incredibly detailed photos that he has taken -- and that's not even the half of it! I originally found an article about his work on EarthSky after having clicked on a random link on Facebook, becoming mesmerized by his animated work. When I say animated work, I mean that he has taken data about the objects in his images, compiled with the actual images he took, and created three-dimensional animations that truly give you a sense of what that region of the universe may look like. As Metsavainio is quoted by EarthSky,

"The models are based on some known scientific facts and an artistic impression. They give an approximation to the real structure of the nebula, an educated guess … a feel to the object and an idea, what it must really be like."

He refers to these animations as being volumetric models where he has used his own two-dimensional images, having carefully analyzed the astrophotos for  all possible relationships between objects and known data to map the details into his animating software. The results are breathtakingly beautiful, and I highly encourage -- no, make that I insist -- that you look at his portfolio, his blog, and the EarthSky article (some of the volumetric models are here)!!!!