Hubble: 15 Years of Discovery (2005) - Autographed by Story Musgrave
Item #: DVD--HUBBLE15YEARS
Hubble: 15 Years of Discovery (2005)
Autographed by Story Musgrave
What's really surprising about Hubble: 15 Years of Discovery, is how it informs us while maintaining a solid wow factor: the first two chapters deal with the Hubble telescope's birth, initial near-sightedness, and its subsequent success in rendering jaw-dropping images of extraordinary beauty; everything else covers specific phenomena as exposed by Hubble's far-reaching optics, including quasars, black holes, specific galaxies, and fine details when the telescope was left wide open to collect deep space images over a ten-day period.
Divided into nine themed chapters, each segment is buffered with intros by ESA scientist Bob Fosbury, and while he's clearly ill at ease in front of the camera – reading his lines with a strong stiffness and awkward concluding pauses – the information is solid and engaging, and he sets up the remarkable montages where Christensen applies a bit of Adobe wizardry to create 3-D images from the Hubble stills (a process somewhat described in the interactive gallery, “How are Hubble Images Made”.
Even more striking are the animated sequences meant to illustrate solar winds, the collision of galaxies, and the strange optics of black holes. Some of the film's best animation was done by Toronto Astrophysicist John Dubinsky, and a few of these premium bits of eye candy, extracted from Dubinsky's DVD Gravitas, are archived in a separate gallery called “Simulating the Universe.” These 2-4 min. chunks have brief intro text, and the elegant animation is underscored with music by Toronto musician John Kameel Farah, whose music makes each vignette an hypnotic experience.
The ongoing narration by Fosbury and Howard Cooper is never short of potent explanations, making Hubble a good resource for space fans and educators. It's also a film worth revisiting, since Hubble will eventually reach the end of its lifespan in spite of a recent five year extension, and Christensen's doc is a fitting tribute to what's probably the most successful space device ever crafted, with images that will keep space eggheads busy for decades.
Autographed by Story Musgrave
What's really surprising about Hubble: 15 Years of Discovery, is how it informs us while maintaining a solid wow factor: the first two chapters deal with the Hubble telescope's birth, initial near-sightedness, and its subsequent success in rendering jaw-dropping images of extraordinary beauty; everything else covers specific phenomena as exposed by Hubble's far-reaching optics, including quasars, black holes, specific galaxies, and fine details when the telescope was left wide open to collect deep space images over a ten-day period.
Divided into nine themed chapters, each segment is buffered with intros by ESA scientist Bob Fosbury, and while he's clearly ill at ease in front of the camera – reading his lines with a strong stiffness and awkward concluding pauses – the information is solid and engaging, and he sets up the remarkable montages where Christensen applies a bit of Adobe wizardry to create 3-D images from the Hubble stills (a process somewhat described in the interactive gallery, “How are Hubble Images Made”.
Even more striking are the animated sequences meant to illustrate solar winds, the collision of galaxies, and the strange optics of black holes. Some of the film's best animation was done by Toronto Astrophysicist John Dubinsky, and a few of these premium bits of eye candy, extracted from Dubinsky's DVD Gravitas, are archived in a separate gallery called “Simulating the Universe.” These 2-4 min. chunks have brief intro text, and the elegant animation is underscored with music by Toronto musician John Kameel Farah, whose music makes each vignette an hypnotic experience.
The ongoing narration by Fosbury and Howard Cooper is never short of potent explanations, making Hubble a good resource for space fans and educators. It's also a film worth revisiting, since Hubble will eventually reach the end of its lifespan in spite of a recent five year extension, and Christensen's doc is a fitting tribute to what's probably the most successful space device ever crafted, with images that will keep space eggheads busy for decades.
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Features:
- Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language: German (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Subtitles: German, English, Danish, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish, French, Russian
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 2
- Rated: NR (Not Rated)
- DVD Release Date: September 27, 2005
- Run Time: 133 minutes
Price: $13.95
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