Stereo Images of Giant Galaxies
29 points
6 days ago
| 5 comments
| bbc.com
| HN
pertinhower
1 hour ago
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On my Meta Quest I am positively begging for decent content worth viewing in 3d. Here we have a bookful of 3d astronomy. Can I not get something like this in VR? Why is VR languishing? How is it that paper and eye-crossing are still the leading technologies for displaying this 3d content?
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darkvertex
21 minutes ago
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Hi there! If you have a Quest 3/3S you should look up "Space Explorers Ultimate Edition", it's free and within it the experience labeled "The ISS Experience" is a beautiful documentary series filmed with 360 cameras sent to film aboard the International Space Station. Some episodes even feature footage filmed outside the station for real, with gorgeous shots of the Earth actually filmed in real outer space attached to the Canadarm robot arm for maneuvering. It's all stereoscopic (3D) video also.

If you have a Quest 2 or 1, I'm very sorry that you can't enjoy that. (Borrow a friend's Quest3 for a weekend I guess.)

ps: I worked for the studio that made the series and was a dev for the custom camera control software webapp that ran on an astronaut's laptop. Crazy fun project.

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behringer
1 hour ago
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SpaceEngine is available in VR, you literally can today.
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JKCalhoun
1 hour ago
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Will print these tomorrow on a nice inkjet at a size suitable for my antique stereoscope.

You can pick up a pair of "stereoscope lenses" and have a few acrylic parts laser-cut to build your own [3]. These actually work well pressed against a computer screen (or an iPad). I designed the acrylic parts [2], built and tested it—included in my Github repo on Stereographer [1].

[1] https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/Stereographer/

[2] https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/Stereographer/blob/main/...

[3] https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/Stereographer/blob/main/...

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drob518
2 hours ago
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iPad worked great for viewing these. Zoom in as you put the iPad a few inches in front of your face and stare straight ahead. Let your brain merge the two images into a 3d composite in the center of your vision. I found taking my glasses off helped me, too.
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JKCalhoun
1 hour ago
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I was able to do the same on my MacBook.

Control-click and saved the images to Downloads. Opened in Preview and scaled down until an image-pair was perhaps 5" wide (total). This brings the separation close to my interocular distance and, by "spacing out" staring past my display I was able to get the stereo image to resolve.

All but #3 are quite good, IMHO.

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BarryGuff
6 days ago
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Wish the stereo images were cross-eyed mode. They're easier to see that way.
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JKCalhoun
53 minutes ago
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Knocked a couple into cross-eyed mode [1]. Don't hurt yourself.

[1] https://imgur.com/a/t4RYc04

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bcraven
2 hours ago
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Perhaps an enterprising soul can convert them to wiggle-grams?
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yodon
4 hours ago
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> Wish the stereo images were cross-eyed mode.

Me too, but mostly because it would mean we had a way to do interstellar travel. I'm pretty sure you'd need a very long baseline between the images for the angles to work properly

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OgsyedIE
4 hours ago
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Having remembered the trick to do these, 3 and 4 were pretty underwhelming compared to the others.
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