Sunspot Constellation

Beautiful Morning Conditions

Sunspot activity has been very slowly increasing. On April 26th it was five months since my last solar imaging session. A completely cloud free morning and well placed sunspots enticed me outside to set up my solar telescope. The air was very dry with temperatures in the mid 50's. A steady wind blew with occasional puffy gusts. Only one minor annoyance was present - every surface on my patio was covered with swarms of tiny red clover mites! These I had to brush off from equipment cases when the session ended.

The following imperfect 15-panel full disc mosaic shows five individual sunspot umbras grouped in the southern hemisphere along with a couple of unimpressive filaments. An unfortunate bright streak runs across the center diameter because software combining the 15 constituent images could not properly blend brightness differences. Also, no prominences or spicules are visible around the rim because camera settings made capture of these relatively dim features impossible.

The next 6-panel mosaic avoids the previous mosaic's blending problem and captures most of the interesting southern hemisphere features. (Click on the images for a larger view.)

During this imaging session video downloads were extremely rapid! I used a powered USB hub with my newest laptop where videos were downloaded onto a solid state drive. The next image is a stack of 400 frames from a 4,000-frame video. It took only 60 seconds to capture the 4,000-frame video. That's an amazing 66.7 frames/sec! Seeing conditions were also good during this time, so the image below is probably the finest resolution my system can achieve. (Lunt 100mm solar telescope, 3X Barlow lens, ZWOASI174MM camera.) I also used a Hinode solar guider to minimize any drift due to imperfect tracking during video capture. Once again, click on the image to see the full detail.

While viewing this sunspot grouping for a few hours it occurred to me that it resembled the constellation, Cassiopeia. Actually, the sunspots are a horizontally flipped version of Cassiopeia as you can see from the constellation and flipped image below.

When I first began observing I saw a small flare erupt within the sunspot group. The next 4-frame animation shows the flare evolve over about 6.5 minutes of activity. It would have been nice to capture more of the eruption, but I wasn't prepared, and my solar guider had not yet been installed.

I was a bit out of practice with good imaging technique after 5 months off. There might have been a light leak somewhere in my system that flat fielding did not remove. I need to rediscover correct camera settings to capture limb prominences.

 

  

Old College Pictures

More Photo Restorations

I have some old historic photos from Randolph Macon Woman's College where I taught for most of my career. It was fun to colorize and enhance scenes from more than a hundred years ago. For example, here's a restored image of the 1897 graduating class.

The next animation shows stages of restoration from the original damaged black and white photo to the final enhanced colorized product.

Final restoration quality depends on original source photo quality. Sometimes the original is slightly out of focus, or the scan into digital form isn't very good. For example, restoration of the 1901 basketball team picture didn't turn out as well as the 1897 image above. Faces seem fuzzier, and smudges on the original aren't completely removed.

Here's the restoration animation.

This picture, showing an art class of the same era, was also a bit fuzzy.

The restoration animation shows blemish removal.The next colorized photo shows the original college faculty. William Waugh Smith, the college's founder, is front and center. The college science building is named after Fernando Wood Martin who is the second man to the right of Smith.

The original small college observatory, Winfree Observatory, was located on the front of campus approximately where Smith Hall is located today.

Later, in 1923, Winfree Observatory was moved to its present location. This colorized picture from 1954 shows the original 6-inch Brashear refractor on its original metal pier containing a mechanical clock drive.

Color really brings old photos to life! 

 

Photo Animation - Part 4

Maternal Grandparents

Both my maternal grandparents died before I was four years old. Sadly, I don't remember grandmother Mary at all. Memories of grandfather David are vague. It was interesting to bring them briefly back to life with animated photos. Unfortunately, very few suitable pictures were available. For example, colorization of the following portrait of young Mary McCormack came out well, but her profile didn't animate properly. Mary, born on December 31, 1879, was the daughter of Irish immigrants. 

I did have a good forward facing picture of young David Smith. The colorized version looked fine except for the overexposed right side of David's head.

David, the son of Scottish immigrants, was born on September 4, 1880. I was astounded to see his youthful face move in the next animation!

The next colorized picture of older couple Mary and David Smith has lots of character. The straw hat and dangling cigarette are a hoot!

Facial animations from this colorized picture were flawed. David's cigarette moved in unnatural ways, and Mary's facial movements were complicated by the intruding edge of David's hat. For some reason, animations from the original black and white image worked better, though not perfectly.

   

One colorized image of Mary and David Smith from 1924 is particularly lovely. They are holding my newborn mother, Helen, probably in Garfield, New Jersey. Both parents were about 44 years old at the time.

Next are animations from the 1924 picture above. Mary's hat moves nicely along with her head, but David's face was not well oriented for animation.

 

In 1925 Mary held my mother in this colorized picture.

The animation tool could not correctly portray Mary's hair in the next animation, but it is the best representation of her relatively young face.

David's face did not animate well in older pictures, so I'll include the next two still images to show his apparent interest in cars.

   

The date of the next picture is probably in the 1940's. David and Mary were likely together in the backyard of their Passaic, NJ home. 

Animation of Mary's black and white face from the previous photo seemed to make her glasses disappear! David's animated face looked terrible - like he needed a shave, so I didn't include it here.

The last picture of Mary I have is from September 25, 1949. The next animation is from this black and white photo. She died on May 5, 1950 when I was only 1.5 years old. I own no picture of the two of us together. 

Grandfather David lived about three years longer than Mary. Here he stands with me on August 10, 1949. David is almost 69 years old, and I'm 10 months old. Notice the unfortunate cigarette in his hand.

On June 26, 1951 David sat with my mother and me during a trip to the Smoky Mountains. I have no idea what I'm yelling about, but my elders seem tolerant! 

Grandfather David died on October 21, 1953.
 

 

 

Photo Animation - Part 3

Paternal Grandmother From Childhood to Old Age

Only one of my grandparents lived long enough for me to know well - my paternal grandmother, Barbara. I remember her mostly as an old woman, growing older and more feeble with each passing year. But all old people were young and vibrant long ago. They were once children with attractive, unwrinkled faces. They grew into fair young adults before morphing into the elderly grandparents we grandchildren came to know. Through the magic of photo animation I was able to follow my grandmother through time from about 1894 to 1966 and better imagine her life before my birth.

In 1894 my grandmother was a blond-haired seven or eight year-old daughter of Polish immigrants. She looked like this:

Four or five years later, in 1898 or 1899, Barbara was roughly 12 years old, sporting earrings, and growing into a lovely teenager.

I wish I had pictures of Barbara's wedding to my grandfather, Michael, in 1905. She would have been in the prime of youth then, and, I imagine, strikingly beautiful. Unfortunately, no wedding pictures exist to my knowledge. I was told she tore them all up in grief over the early death of Michael in 1927. I have only two damaged pictures of my grandparents together in 1926. Barbara must have missed destroying these two. A colorized version of one of these is shown next. The left side of Barbara's face is overexposed and smudged by some kind of scraping. 

I worked to repair damage to Barbara's face in Photoshop, but there was no way to completely restore the unblemished photo. The following color animation represents Barbara at about age 40. 

Four years later, at age 44 in 1930, Barbara's face was more rounded, and her hair was darker in this black and white animation.

In about 1937 Barbara sat proudly before her five children in this colorized family portrait. My 23 year-old father, Stanley, is second from the right.

Barbara's 51 year-old face still looked far from old in the next animation.

A World War II era black and white picture from 1944 showed 58 year-old Barbara now wearing glasses and beginning to resemble the grandmother I knew.

Five years later, on February 17, 1949, I was grandma's third grandchild. She was 63 and looked happy to see my chubby presence on her lap!

On November 25, 1952 grandma's hair still had blond color as I watched her prepare Thanksgiving turkey.

At my high school graduation on June 21, 1966 grandma was 80 years old but still able to stand firmly.

I used Photoshop to manually remove flash reflections from grandma's glasses. Unfortunately, this produced a slight distortion of her right side eyelid in the following animation. Otherwise, the animation gives a hint of her former beauty and spirit.

Nine years later, in the summer of 1975, after a series of heart attacks and strokes took their toll, grandma was largely confined to bed and could barely walk. In this last picture she sits in front of my parents and my newly married brother, Richard, and his wife, Sindi.

Barbara died on July 17, 1978 at age 92.  

 

 

 
 

 

  
 
  

Photo Animation - Part 2

Paternal Great Grandparents Come Alive

My great grandmother, Scholastica Ostrokolowicz, died in January, 1921, twenty-seven years before my birth. Her earliest picture in my possession is from approximately 1888, about one year after her arrival in America from Poland. A colorized version of this picture is shown next. Scholastica sits with her bearded husband, my great grandfather, Jan Ostrokolowicz. Standing to the left is her young son, Xavier. Her approximately 15 year-old daughter, Ursula, stands behind. I believe my grandmother, Barbara, sits on Scholastica's lap.

I was able to animate Scholastica's 31 year-old face from the old, faded picture.

Unfortunately, I could not animate great grandfather Jan's face from the same picture. The animation tool would not recognize his beard and faded facial features. 

About 6 years years after the first picture above was taken, in approximately 1894, another family picture was taken which I was also able to colorize. Now Scholastica is about 37 years old, her daughter, my grandmother, Barbara, on the right, is about 7 years old, and Barbara's younger sister, Johanna, is on the left. Enhancement of the colorization put some erroneous purple and red tints on dresses, but made faces sharper.

Next are two animations of Scholastica's 37-year-old face. The first colorized animation had trouble keeping Scholastica's hat attached to her face. For some reason processing a black and white photo version resulted in more natural movement in the second animation.

Years pass before Scholastica's last picture was taken. Colorization gave life to an old black and white photo. I can only guess at the year. Her daughter, Johanna stands beside her as a young woman. Perhaps the date is between 1914 and 1921. If so, Scholastica is between 57 and 64 years old.

Animation of the black and white photo worked better than the color animation. I was able to chose a version which included a small smile to soften Scholastica's otherwise stern expression.

Enhancement worked miracles on this portrait of elderly, dignified Scholastica which hangs in our bedroom.

Only two old photos of my great grandfather, Jan Ostrokolowicz, produced reasonable animations. The most interesting picture, from about 1892, shows Jan in his Polish cavalry uniform standing with his son, Xavier, on the right. Jan is about 45 years old and sporting a huge beard. The original photo was damaged, making it impossible to repair Jan's missing foot and rifle bottom. 

The animation tool frequently has trouble keeping hats and beards attached to faces. In this case Jan's helmet followed his head, but the beard movement is a bit odd.

The next picture is from about 1898. Jan is approximately 51 years old and has lost his beard. I colorized the original black and white picture, but didn't enhance it. This prevented erroneous purple patches on dark clothing. My grandmother, Barbara, now about 12 years old, stands on the left.

Below are two animated versions of Jan's face with slightly different movement in each. I chose these because they exhibited the least hat distortion. They both show brief hints of smile which really bring Jan to life. 

 

Jan Ostrokolowicz is like a ghost. I've searched and searched for any documented record of him and failed to find any beyond his name on a passenger list from the ship that brought him to America from Poland. I know almost nothing about him.

I continue to be fascinated by these animations!  


 

 

 
 
 
 

Photo Animation

Grandfather Comes Alive!

I recently discovered a photo animation tool available on MyHeritage.com called "Deep Nostalgia". This remarkable application can produce limited lifelike movement from still photographs.

I never met my paternal grandfather, Michael Michalik, who died at age 45 in 1927. Only five pictures of Michael remain in my possession. Two photos show him as a young man about 20 years old. Three other pictures show him looking worn out shortly before his death. I used the first image below to bring my grandfather back to life as a young man. It's a poor quality black and white picture from somewhere between 1901 and 1905. Michael stands behind his brother, Ignacy, and Ignacy's new bride, Caroline.

In the first step, I cropped the image to show Michael alone.

Next, I adjusted levels in Photoshop to darken the haziness.

Then I enhanced the previous image using the MyHeritage automatic enhancement tool. The amazing enhanced result clears away many fuzzy imperfections of the original picture.

Then I colorized the previous enhanced image using the MyHeritage automatic colorization tool. Overexposure of Michaels's forehead is more obvious in color than in black and white. His dark jacket also has inaccurate purple areas. This seems to be a common flaw in many colorizations of dark clothing.

Finally, the spectacular "Deep Nostalgia" animation tool brought Michael to life as you can see in the following short video.

The animation works incredibly well! Apparently, Michael might have been wearing a hat before the photo was taken because his hair is crushed in along the left side.

Animations work best with isolated, forward facing heads with no beards or hats. It also works best if smiles are subtle without too many teeth showing. Animations often add brief, small, charming smiles to originally unsmiling faces. For example, check out the hint of a smile near the end of a different less enhanced animation of young Michael.

Another photo from near 1900 shows Michael standing to the right of someone named Karoll Lichtman. I wish I knew the circumstances of the picture. The colorized version looks particularly good. There are no purple patches on the dark suits.

Michael's animated face from this picture seems more rounded than the previous animations. His hair is also slicked down.

A slightly different animation was produced from the black and white original version. I don't know why "Deep Nostalgia" treats different levels of enhancement differently, but I like the nice little hint of a smile at the end of the uncolored animation.

The next 25 years or so after 1900 were not kind to Michael's face. In the next picture he stands between his wife, Barbara, to the right, and Barbara's niece, Victoria, on the left, in the year 1926.

The colorized animation of Michael's 1926 face did not work as well as the black and white one shown next.

Although these videos are short and artificially produced, they brought my unknown grandfather back to life for a few wonderful seconds.
 

 
 

 

Backyard Light Pollution

Too Many Lights!

When we first moved to our new home in Williamsburg I was thrilled with prospects for backyard astronomical observing. No large trees blocked the view. Neighboring lots were initially empty. There was an unobstructed view of the southwest horizon. It wasn't long, however, before vacant lots were occupied by two-story houses blocking nice horizon views. Then neighbors moved in. Now my backyard is surrounded by houses, each equipped with rear spotlights which make nighttime observing nearly impossible.

Imagine standing on my backyard observing pad with telescope ready to go. Facing southwest you see this view.

Turning slightly right to look more directly south reveals another glaring light seen below.

If I'm unlucky and both neighbors light the night at the same time, I see this.

Now turn about 90 degrees farther right to face west. Here are the most troublesome discouraging lights of all.

The upper beacon in the previous image is an extremely bright interior light, not an outside spotlight. It blasts out through a semicircular second story window lacking blinds or curtains. It shines directly in my face whenever I step into the yard to check the sky, and it rarely turns off. This nemesis light often remains lit well past midnight, sometimes all night long! Underneath the awful second story light is another ever shining first story interior light glaring through open blinds. I can imagine humbly asking other neighbors to please turn off their outdoor spotlights, but how can I ask someone to turn off lights inside their home? Maybe a bold character could do this, but I'm not that person!

Now turn right another 90 degrees towards southwest to find the remaining awful lights.

To be honest, all five nightmare lights seldom shine simultaneously. In fact, the two northern lights only come on during infrequent nighttime barbecues. One of the southern lights usually shines temporarily to let a dog out. The other southern light, however, is frequently on continuously in the summer. Still, it actually takes only one active light to ruin observing.

 

The worst lights are the interior house lights in the east/southeast. They glare out all night almost every night year round. By unfortunate alignment they shine directly on my observing pad. If I move to the edges of my yard, window frames block direct sight lines to these awful lights. Unfortunately, telescopes can't be set up at these places.

 

What's the probability of finding all five lights simultaneously off? Very low! Sometimes I dream about a power outage. Power outages from storms aren't often accompanied by clear skies, however. 

 

From time to time, fool that I am, I set up a telescope for observing on some clear moonless night. It doesn't take long for frustration to set in as, seemingly at random, spotlights turn on and off destroying whatever modest dark adaptation I manage to accumulate. It's very discouraging. Then I'm reminded why I chose to specialize in daytime solar imaging rather than nighttime deep sky imaging.

 

I've fantasized about ways to block the lights, but possibilities all seem impractical or too expensive. My favorite fantasy is motorized black fence panels that elevate all around my yard blocking each and every light! Of course, I could travel to a darker location, but this is increasingly unattractive the older I get. When I was younger I would spend all night driving around the countryside setting up a telescope at various places. I could do this for hours past midnight, then get up the next morning for work. At this point, however, I can't summon the energy required to pack up equipment, haul it to a dark site, set it up, face possible deteriorating sky conditions, break down equipment, store it back in a vehicle, haul it back home and unpack it all. The convenience of backyard observing is too great in comparison. Traveling is just impractical. So, I'm stuck with backyard light pollution.