Last reminder before the big day – the Star Vistas Private Viewing at the ArtSway gallery opens at 6:00 p.m. on Friday 3rd September.  If you cannot make it on opening night, the Exhibition runs over the weekend.  At 7:00 p.m. on the 3rd I will give a short presentation on the Magic of Photography which includes high-speed photography, macro and micro work, as well as deep-sky images not on display in the Exhibition.  Hope to see you all there on the night

I just saw a very inspirational programme about Brian Duffy (a famous professional photographer) on BBC’s IPlayer.  Clearly Brian (who unfortunately died earlier this year) was a very bright man and his answers to the inane questions from the interviewer were intensely sharp and well-considered.  One of his answers is going to stick with me for the rest of my life, Brian said:  ”The work is the statement” – what an obvious (and quite brilliant!) observation.  Basically Brian was saying that a work of art, wherever displayed, creates its own statement.  A  great work of art needs no accompanying flowery prose to justify its existence.  In contrast – I am sure sure we have all visited Art Exhibitions where quite abysmal pieces of “artwork” have been accompanied by the most exquisite and carefully crafted prose in a vain attempt to give the work credibility and substance.

And talking of Exhibitions – please remember that the Star Vistas Exhibition opens on Friday 3rd September 2010 at the ArtSway gallery – where a portfolio of deep-sky images can be seen, sans flowery prose.  After all what words can possibly describe the mind-stretching wonders of the Cosmos?

Just a reminder that the Star Vistas Exhibition at the ArtSway gallery is now just one month off – put it in your diary now if you want to see the latest and best images from the New Forest Observatory.

There is an on-going discussion at present that may result in another Star Vistas Exhibition of deep-sky images – plus a talk on deep-sky imaging – but this time in the Bristol area.  If you are unable to make it to the ArtSway Exhibition this September, then there could be a 2-week October Exhibition in Bristol.  Keep visiting the New Forest Observatory web site to be kept up to date on the latest developments.

There will be an Exhibition of Greg Parker’s latest and best deep-sky images at ArtSway, running from Friday 3 September 2010 until Sunday 5 September 2010.  A Private Viewing for invited guests begins at 6:00 p.m. on Friday 3 September and a short PowerPoint presentation on “The Magic of Photography” will start at 7:00 p.m.  The ArtSway gallery can be found in Station Road, Sway near Brockenhurst and seen on-line at ArtSway gallery.

If you are unable to attend the Exhibition, you can still see a collection of Greg’s earlier work in the recent publication “Star Vistas”, Springer 2009, with Forewords by Sir Arthur C Clarke, Sir Patrick Moore, and Dr. Brian May.

Friends and acquaintances will soon be receiving invitations to the Private Viewing.  If you do not receive an invitation and would like to attend the Private Viewing please e-mail me at:  greg@newforestobservatory.com

At the recent Starscape Exhibitions a common question was “how far away are these deep-sky objects?”.  I gave a rough answer in terms of Light Years, and the questioner would walk away satisfied, but it was clear that they really didn’t have a clue about the immensity of distance implied by the term Light Year – so here’s a very short piece just to try and put things into context.

Before going into the numbers, I would like to remind you of Arthur C Clarke’s “First Law” as I will be touching on this in what follows. Clarke says,

“When a distinguished but elderly scientist says that something is possible, (s)he is almost certainly right.  When (s)he says it is impossible, (s)he is very probably wrong.”

And with that, onto the explanation…
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Exhibitions, Starscape II

Hi Everyone! Lucy Clark interviewed me the other day and a photographer came to the exhibition on Saturday (19th August 2007) for her article titled Stunning shots of the sky at night. 

It is appearing today in the Southern Daily Echo in both online and printed versions.  I’ve scanned the printed article and you can see the pages below (Please Note: the article is copyright Southern Daily Echo)

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Today, I found out that 160 people attended the Friday night opening of the Starscape II Exhibition!  I certainly don’t get a turn out like that for one of my 9.00 a.m. lectures

A very big thank you goes to Astronomy Now magazine who advertised this event in the August 2007 issue – many people who attended the Friday night opening had their Astronomy Now in hand

A “virtual” tour of the exhibition is attached to show you what you are missing

Tags: Exhibitions, Starscape II

Opening night was very busy with over 120 people attending!  This was quite a lot more than I was expecting, but the hall is good for parties up to 200, so there was some spare standing room. 

Met up with some mates I hadn’t seen in a long time, as well as some of the Trade delegates who have supplied me with superb equipment. 

A Professor of Computing helped me out when the first PowerPoint slide didn’t appear to fire off the soundtrack, and once that was sorted, we were off. 

Drinks, lots of discussion, and plenty of questions, including the inevitable “are the colours real?” 

Don’t forget – the Exhibition runs until Friday 24th August, admission £1 only with children free – 10.30a.m. until 4.30p.m. every day.

[singlepic id="114" w="200" h="150" mode="" float="" ] Tags: Exhibitions, Starscape II

We are pleased to announce that the Starscape II Exhibition will open at 7.00 p.m. on Friday 17th August 2007 at the Brockenhurst Village Hall – which is within short walking distance of Brockenhurst main line station.

The exhibition is in support of the Brockenhurst Village Trust Stage Completion Project and is kindly sponsored by Exxon.

It will be open from the 18th August 2007 until the 24th August 2007 between 10.30am and 4.30pm.  Admission is £1 for adults and children admission is free.

We will be showing our latest images and Greg will be giving a talk about imaging deep-space objects (DSOs) at 7.30pm on the opening evening (definitely something not to be missed).  Opening night charges are £5 with free admission for Trade and Press delegates.

Note: Bar facilities will be available on the opening night only. 

So, please come down and have a look, ask questions and mix with other Astronomy enthusiasts! Download the Starscape Brochure to find out more about what we will be showing – but note – there are 19 new images to see in the Exhibition that you won’t find in the brochure!

Click the download icon to download a PDF version of the brochure.

Tags: Exhibitions, Starscape II