My First AstroShorts Video
Here’s my second video blog entry for AstronomyBuff. I was playing with Stellarium and trying out the video capture stuff to see how it would look for future videos.
It came out OK, the problem is resolution. In 320×240 format, the planet, star and constellation labels don’t show up very well, so I have to make a larger resolution video that people can download separately.
Anyway, AstroShorts.com has a great uploader interface, WAY better than YouTube. I’m going to try AstronomyBuzz in a bit to test out that interface.
To summarize what’s on the video:
There’s a cool little alignment this Saturday between Saturn and Venus where they will appear about a half a degree apart low in the western sky just after sunset. I used the Stellarium software to show what it would look like in a variety of optical stuffs like binoculars, short and long focal length telescopes.
I even added some cool planetarium music. Don’t even think about smoking any pot in there (unless you brought enough for everyone).
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
BTW, good job AstroShorts guys!
Technorati Tags: video blog, saturn, observing, venus, stellarium
Related Stories
POSTED IN: astronomy education, astronomy video, general astronomy, video blog
5 opinions for My First AstroShorts Video
Astrogeek
Jun 29, 2007 at 6:31 am
Hi Tony; Nice video! I’m curious as to which software you are using to do video screen captures.
Frederica
Jun 29, 2007 at 10:10 am
Thanks for the new vidblog Tony !! ^_^
Nice choice of music too, I haven’t heard Jean Michel Jarre in many years.
Tony
Jun 29, 2007 at 10:56 am
@AstroGeek: I using SnapzPro X on my MacBook Pro to make those. It’s about the only decent program I know for a Mac. I hadda buy it, but it was worth it.
@Fredericka: Excellent catch! Most people have never heard of Jarre. That’s some of the oldest electronic music I have, I even have it on vinyl. I think it dates back to 79. As you know, that was from Oxygene.
Shannon
Jun 29, 2007 at 8:49 pm
I really liked this Tony, thanks for posting it. And I loved that you could change the images based on what people were using to look at the night sky. That was very cool. You’ve sold me on the program for sure. By the way, I think everyone should look unprofessional at least once a day. Makes life less stuffy.
Steve Bevan
Jul 4, 2007 at 9:21 am
Thanks Tony for trying us out! The Astroshorts membership is growing nicely but most people are still a little shy when it comes to uploading their own work. I hope that more people will follow you.
Note-the size/resolution of our player could be increased but we had to consider the download times for our visitors. Like everything else in life, it’s a trade-off. We think we’ve got a decent balance but you are right, the finer details are tricky.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: