Let me start this review by saying that I am not an expert in terms of complex technical aspects around binoculars, and therefore I will not dig much into that stuff. However, if you are interested in the technical geekness I recommend you the forum Cloudy Nights. There you’ll find a lot of technical information about binoculars, given by the best experts you can find on the Internet.

In this review I’ll give you my opinion on how they perform, what I think about them (the pros and cons and how they suit my needs) as well as some basic technical info. So this review certainly won’t have the geek mumbo jumbo that only a few people understand.

First of all I bought these binoculars primarily for stargazing but they are very good both for astronomical and terrestrial use. When I first looked at the Orion’s Belt with them I sort of said… WOW!!! I was truly amazed. Then, when I looked at the Pleiades I went WOOOOW!!!! Get the picture, don’t you?!

Before buying them I’ve done some research, and everybody was saying that the image was good, but hey… I wasn’t expecting such a good image, to be honest. It was just when I looked at the night sky with these binos that I truly understood what other owners mean when they say that these binoculars give you a great bang for the buck.

They are crisp and clear across almost all the field of view (FOV) and only on the very edge they exhibit some blur (not very pronounced though). I believe that 90-95% of the FOV gives a crisp and clear image. Plus, the collimation, which means the optical alignment, was perfect out of the box.

If you want to use these binoculars for stargazing you’ll be more than happy with them, but if you want to use them for terrestrial views they also give you detailed images and good contrasts. On the other hand I haven’t noticed any major color aberrations! Maybe in high contrasts like, for instance, if you’re looking at the moon you may notice some faint fringe, but quite frankly, it won’t be nothing like what happens with those cheap Chinese binos, where you get purple fringes everywhere. I mean, some of the poor little suckers have such color aberrations and miscollimation that if you really must look through them, I urge you not to do it for more than 30 seconds or you’ll end up so nauseous that you may even throw up. And even if you manage not to throw up, you’ll get a huge headache. That’s for sure! The Pentax are in a very different league so, if you’re wondering whether or not they suffer from some of the bad stuff typical to the Chinese binos, don’t worry, they don’t!

Pentax claims that each air-to-glass surface is fully multicoated. Not being an expert in such matters all I can say is that they deliver awesome optical performance for their price tag. They are not a pair of Fujinons alright, but they come closer than many others! I don’t know if it is due to the coating, the internal structure, the prisms or whatever, and I don’t really care, all I know is that they do what they are supposed to, and they do it very well.

About the body, I can only say that it feels very good in your hands, for two main reasons: first because of the soft but grippy rubber surface, second because they have very nice ergonomics with soft edges, all across the objectives, meant to fit nicely to your hands. And it’s a fact that when you handhold the binoculars they do feel very comfortable.

If you are the kind of person who wants a pair of binoculars to go outside no matter if it is a wonderful sunny day, a chilling night, or a humongous downpour, I have good news for you! They are sealed and nitrogen filled which prevents condensation inside. They’re also rain/waterproof (up to one meter according to Pentax, since they meet the requisites of the JIS Class 6 waterproofing protocol), snow proof and of course, fog proof. So don’t hold yourself from taking these babies for a walk because I think they will love it and you too!

Because they are 10×50, you can use them with your hands only – especially in terrestrial views. For small and/or faint objects you might want to use a tripod. As I use them mainly for stargazing, I have them on a tripod almost all the time. I bought a cheap 1/4″-20 tripod adapter from Celestron that does the job, although one of these days I’ll buy something better since this adaptor is the weak link of all the setup. The tripod I use with them is a sturdy, yet heavy, Manfrotto 055PROB (Bogen 3021BPRO). It weights 2.4 kg (5.3 lb) and has a maximum load capacity of 6.0 kg (13.3 lb). I have it equipped with a Manfrotto 488RC4 ball head with a weight of 800 g (1.76 lb) and a maximum load capacity of 8.0 kg (17.6 lb). So as you can see, for a pair of binoculars weighting 1030 g (2.27 lb), this setup is more than enough! This is not however the tripod I use for outdoor photography. In outdoor photography you’re always walking from one place to another, and for that purpose I have a carbon fiber Slik tripod that weights like a feather, but for the binos I prefer the old Manfrotto given the fact that I don’t do much terrestrial views, so I just have to find one good place to stargaze and stay put! If you do photography and want an all around tripod, you can buy a carbon fiber instead, but be prepared to pay much more for the tripod than for the binos. The Manfrotto was my first tripod for photography, but I couldn’t carry it anymore without shouting out loud something less proper, so I decided to buy the Slik exclusively for outdoor photography and kept the Manfrotto for other purposes such as stargazing and some indoor photography.

Size comparison (from left to right): Nikon 10x21 Sprint IV; Pentax 10x50 PCF WP II; Celestron 20x80 SkyMaster

If you have eyeglasses, don’t worry, the eyecups are perfect for those who use eyeglasses. They have three positions for eye relief each one of them giving you a nice click. When you feel/hear the click you can be sure that the eyecups won’t move from the chosen position. There is also a central focusing mechanism on these binos that has a locking position. Very handy and easy to use, it prevents the binos from accidentally get out of focus. On the right eyepiece you also have the dioptric correction in locking click stops with an adjustment range of ±2 m-1 .

The only downside of these binoculars don’t have to do directly with them but rather with accessories. I’m talking about the caps and the bag. The primary lens caps stick snuggly on the objectives, however the eyepieces cap (which is a single piece for both eyepieces), is truly – and forgive my English – a piece of crap, really… When I saw the damn thing falling off the binos no matter what, instead of WOW I guess I did say something like OMG!!! It’s by far the lousiest eyepiece cap I’ve ever seen, and I don’t quite understand how Pentax included such a bad item in this package. Instead of a single piece they should have done a couple caps, one for each eyepiece. As far as I know this ain’t rocket science, so I don’t understand what were those guys thinking when they made this awful mistake.

It also comes with a bag and shoulder strap. The bag is not as lousy as the eyepieces cap, but still it could be much better. It’s not rigid and it doesn’t give you a sensation of protection for the binos. Don’t you even think about dropping them inside this case. The outcome will certainly be tragic to say the least!

Finally if you ask me the pros and cons, it’s easy: the cons are the eyepieces cap and the case. The pros are everything else!

Cheers!

Pentax 10×50 PCF WP II specifications:

On the 15^th September 2011 Landka released Back in Time for the iPad. The app is in fact an interactive multimedia book and was an immediate success. It was the #1 iPad paid book app in the US, UK, Spain, France and more than 30 other countries and was featured in the App Store’s “New and Noteworthy” section in more than 100 countries. On the 2^ndDecember 2011 they managed to release the iPhone version that has all the good stuff of the iPad’s version but with the interface adapted to the iPhone screen size.

The app is much more than an History book, it is based on an interesting concept: imagine that the Big Bang happened 24 hours ago, and in just one hour everything in between took place. To accomplish this, the app first shows you a clock which you can wind back by a maximum of 24 hours. This takes you back through natural history, right from the Big Bang to the arrival and development of human kind. After you set back the clock, the app shows you a beautiful line of milestones in 3D. The first milestone in the line is the one that took place at the time you stopped the clock. You can touch that milestone if you like, and see its content (text and multimedia), or you can move the milestones line back and forth until you find the milestone you want to open or you can simply go back to the clock and choose a different time.

The contents within each milestone are text, animations, photos and videos. There is also a relaxing background music that you can turn off if you like. All the graphics, photos, videos and animations look awesome, and the interface is very fun to use. You can see superb animations like the one presented in the Solar System milestone or the fantastic animation presented in the milestone about the extinction that took place between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary periods, where you can see the Earth peacefully rotating when suddenly appears an asteroid coming from the deep space and approaching our planet until the impact takes place. It’s an example of one of the amazing animations in this app.

The iPhone has a smaller screen, which is sometimes perceived as an handicap for this kind of apps. With Back in Time that is not true at all. The app was redesigned for the iPhone screen, and although maintaining all its iPad features, the interface is adapted for the iPhone. Of course, with the smaller screen, fewer items can be displayed simultaneously and there’ll be more page flipping, but the overall outcome of this “migration” is indeed very good and rest assured that the size of the iPhone’s screen is not an issue at all. Everything transitions smoothly and it looks and feels fantastic on the iPhone as much as it looks and feels on the iPad!

Although to most of us the text is perfectly easy to read, some individuals who typically have trouble reading smaller print may find it less attractive than the iPad version, but then again, people with problems such as these will certainly find a lot of difficulty with most of the iPhone apps, given the limitations imposed by the screen size. The only overcome I can possibly see for this problem is the ability to text zoom in and out, with word wrap, either by pinching the screen or by choosing a letter size in the settings. It would be nice if Landka implemented something like this in a future release.

Regardless of the limitations of the iPhone screen size, the entire book with its gorgeous images, animations, videos, and relaxing music is both educational and a work of art in itself, and in my opinion it is well worth purchasing. It is available in the App Store for €3.99/$4.99 or, if you prefer, the iPad version is available for €5.99/$7.99.

Have Fun!

Cheers!

Nespresso CitiZ & Milk with the Aeroccino

In 1976, Éric Favre, employee of Nestlé, invented, patented and introduced the system to the business market in Switzerland but without the expected success. In 1988, thanks to Jean-Paul Gaillard (a business man and the creator of «Le Club» community), the product became a market success. In 1990, the firm signed a contract with Turmix, which started to sell Nespresso machines in Switzerland. Thereafter, other contracts were signed with Krups, Magimix, Alessi, Philips and De’Longhi.

Machines

Nespresso offer a number of different machines for sale. The machines carry the brand names of well known kitchen equipment manufacturers such as Krups, Magimix, Siemens, and DeLonghi, but mostly they are manufactured by the Swiss company Eugster/Frismag, one of the world’s largest coffee machine producers. Although based in Switzerland, Eugster/Frismag also manufactures in China under the Krups, Turmix, Delonghi and Magimix brands. Some machines are equipped with an accessory called “aeroccino” which is a fast automatic system for preparation of a light and creamy hot or cold milk froth used in many coffee recipes, according to the season, including Latte Macchiato and Cappuccino.

Capsule of Cosi

Capsules

Nespresso capsules are sold exclusively by Nespresso. Each capsule contains 5-6 grams of ground coffee and makes one cup of coffee. Depending on the length of the pour the capsule is designed for 40mL for an espresso shot, or 110mL for a lungo (long) pour. The capsule material and perforated top are both made of aluminum. For health reasons, the interior of most of the capsule is lined with food-grade shellac.

Blends

Nespresso has 16 “Grands Crus”:

Blend	Family	Intensity	Tasting	Aromatic profile
Ristretto	Espresso	10	Ristretto / Espresso / Cappuccino	Strong roasted notes of chocolate. A subtle contrast between strength an bitterness, acidity and fruity notes.
Arpeggio	Espresso	9	Ristretto / Espresso / Cappuccino	Intense, grilled notes alongside subtle cocoa notes and woody hints.
Roma	Espresso	8	Ristretto / Espresso	Roasted and woody notes are revealed through the light roasting of intensely flavored beans from different origins.
Livanto	Espresso	6	Espresso	A round and balanced profile, typical of freshly roasted coffee results in a combination of cereal, malted and caramelized notes as well as fine fruity notes.
Capriccio	Espresso	5	Espresso	A typical cereal note balanced with a light acidity.
Volluto	Espresso	4	Espresso	A light roasting preserves the cereal note of the brazilian Arabica and the fresh and fruity note of the Colombian coffee.
Cosi	Espresso	3	Espresso	A citrus note with strong hints of lemon. This rare and refreshing character is supported by a light body.
Indriya from India	Pure Origin	10	Ristretto / Espresso / Cappuccino	Cocoa and dry plant notes, as well as a spicy bouquet reminiscent of cloves, pepper and nutmeg.
Rosabaya de Colombia	Pure Origin	6	Espresso	Notes of red fruit, reminiscent of wine: black currant, cranberries and red currants.
Dulsão do Brasil	Pure Origin	5	Espresso	Sweet notes of honey and maple syrup dominate, on a base of malted cereal.
Fortissio Lungo	Lungo	7	Lungo	A full body and bitter base supports the aroma of intensely roasted beans, along with plant and woody notes, and the typical cereal note that comes from the Robusta.
Vivalto Lungo	Lungo	4	Lungo	The perfect mix of several origins results in a rich and complex character: roasted, lightly woody, sweet cereal and subtle floral notes.
Finezzo Lungo	Lungo	3	Lungo	Floral notes reminiscent of jasmine and orange blossom, and notes of bergamot.
Decaffeinato Lungo	Lungo	2	Lungo	Strong roasted notes.
Decaffeinato	Espresso	2	Espresso	Hints of red fruit, typical of certain wines, softened by notes of dried frutis, coffee beans and a "milky-buttery" note.
Decaffeinato Intenso	Espresso	7	Espresso	Grilled and chocolate notes with an intense body. A very rich aroma is noticeable in both the crema and the coffee.

Notes on tasting: Ristretto is a cup of 0.85oz/25ml; Espresso is a cup of 1.35oz/40ml;  Lungo is a cup of 3.75oz/110ml.

The Grand Crus

Process

Nespresso’s hermetically sealed capsules are made of aluminium foil.[16] When the capsule is inserted into the machine, the top of the capsule is pierced. Some machines make a single large hole, and others make a number of smaller holes. When the machine is activated it pumps in hot water under high pressure. This causes the flat bottom of the capsule to bow out, as this is made of thinner foil than the rest of the capsule. The base of the capsule holder (on which the capsule sits) has a number of raised squares which cause the foil to rupture at these points. The brewed coffee exits the capsule through these rupture holes and flows into the coffee cup. There is a pressure release valve inside the brewing chamber which prevents an explosion occurring if the coffee exhaust path becomes blocked. The spent capsule must finally be removed from the holder; on some machines this is automated.

Marketing

Social media, such as Facebook has been used to promote the product in the form of an interactive Facebook page and celebrities, such as George Clooney and John Malkovich, have been used to market the product. The brand’s current slogan is What else? The brand Nespresso is the subject of continued promotional campaigns around the world.

Fair trade coffee – The “AAA Sustainable Quality”

Nespresso started a sustainable development program named AAA Sustainable Quality. This program is monitored by independent international organizations, and it ensures that 75% of the Nespresso coffee’s export value finds its way back to the growers and and their communities. In return, the farmers must use environmentally-friendly farming practices, and only supply Nespresso with superior quality coffee.

Reducing the carbon footprint – The Ecolaboration program 

As you know, Nespresso’s capsules are made of aluminum, and the company created a program to recycle used capsules. They established a goal for 2013: 75% of the capsules sold must be made from recycled aluminum. I’ve heard some environmentalists criticize the recycling process. They defend that a lot of energy would be spared if the coffee was sold in grain.

They are right, and I won’t argue with that, but I must also say that I don’t see many of them criticizing the soft drink industry (a capsule of Nespresso contains 1g of aluminum while a soft drink can contains 13g), on the contrary many of them might even drown themselves in cans of coke or other canned soft drinks. Clearly the hypocrisy always walks hand in hand with those who spend their lives criticizing everything and everybody.

Anyway, Nespresso sells coffee in aluminum capsules. They say it is the best material to preserve the coffee aromas and flavors by protecting it from air and light. Don’t worry… The coffee is not in direct contact with the aluminum! The capsule is coated inside with a food-grade shellac to prevent any contact between the aluminum and the ground coffee. They also remind that aluminum can be infinitely recycled. The truth is that it’s not cheap to produce aluminum thus it is preferable to recycle it. The aluminum recycle process requires only 5% of the necessary energy to produce new aluminum. So, against facts there are no arguments: it is better to recycle than to produce new. Besides, in the recycling process Nespresso also uses the coffee grounds to make fertilizers.

So it is a fact that, in this world, everything could be better, but it’s not suffice to say that it could be, it’s also necessary that each one of us do our part, and in this case, if you buy Nespresso don’t forget to recycle through Ecolaboration program. The ecosystem gives you a big hug!

Cheers!

Example of a picture taken with Pro HDR

I’ve been doing HDR photography for a long time, as you can easily see by browsing this blog a little. The process I use is simply to grab my Nikon, take five shots with different exposures, and combine them using Photomatix. It’s Great, gives awesome results, but… it takes some skill, patience and time to reach the final result. Maybe that’s why only a few do HDR photography. Most people don’t master the technical aspects or don’t have the necessary tools to do it, and quite frankly, I think most people don’t want to spend time learning and money doing it.

In fact most people these days look at photography in a practical way, which is to say that people don’t want to go through hassles around photos. They just want to take pictures without being overwhelmed with knotty stuff. This way of viewing photography has been driving the market to a new paradigm: fully automatic pocket cameras.

They do everything! Compact pocket cameras do everything! You have a point-and-shoot in your pocket that takes kick ass photos and you don’t have to know anything about the technique involved. The camera does it all for you. Of course, there’s just a minor detail… it’s always another gadget in your pocket, and since your pocket can’t carry all your gadgets at the same time, you have to make choices. If you put the camera in your pocket where will you put the cell phone?! On the surface it seems to be a dilemma, but if you look deeper the choice is obvious: you take the cell phone with you and leave the camera at home.

Cell phone makers around the world got the message, and to push up sales they equipped their already cool cell phones with fantastic cameras, and the iPhone 4S is no exception. The truth is that its camera is so good that you’ll probably get a little puzzled on whether to call it a phone or a pocket camera and the truth is that it’s both!

So now, software developers are releasing everything they can to push the hardware capabilities to the limit. This app I’m reviewing, named Pro HDR, does HDR photography in a breeze. You just have to point and shoot like you do when you take a regular photo. The software automatically takes two exposures and creates the HDR. It’s just that… In fact the whole process is so easy that I don’t have a clue on why I am reviewing it…

Anyway, when you enter the app, you’re immediately taken to the camera shooting screen. Here you have buttons to:

• turn the grid on/off;
• use the back or the fore camera;
• create the HDR automatically, manually or simply turn it off;
• turn the flash on/off.

You also have a zoom slider. In the lower bar you have three buttons:

• a button to hide all the previous buttons I’ve mentioned;
• the camera shooting button;
• the “actions” button, which will take you to another set of options (see picture).

In the Actions screen you can turn a timer on/off, go to settings, open an HDR or an image from the library and get help.
Once you’ve taken the two exposures, in a sequence where the software first analyses the image and then takes the shots, you’re redirected to the adjustments screen. Here you have five sliders to adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and tint. You also have buttons for image crop, choose a filter, choose a frame and add some text. I find this last feature very cool, because you can choose the color of the text,  the font (there are 14 colors and 13 fonts available), and after writing what you want you can drag the text to anywhere in the photo. There’s also a “random” button in the fonts screen which I find pretty useless because you may have to hit it several times before having something usable (the random feature is actually random since it does not take into account if there’s contrast between the text and the part of the photo where it lays thus sometimes the random feature makes the text blend with the background… …not cool).

After you’re done with the adjustments, you can save your photo to the library and/or share it by email, on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr or copy it to the clipboard.

I’ve taken two shots of the same image for comparison purposes, and I’ve chosen images with really high contrasts. The first image you see is an HDR created by Pro HDR and the second is a regular photo taken with the iPhone 4S camera app. Looking at both you can see right away that the second one has over and underexposed areas whilst the first is much more balanced regarding exposure. The HDR gives you more details, textures and a much better color rendition – very natural really -, though in transition spots there are some chromatic aberrations. Nevertheless you can see the lamp on the HDR while in the regular photo it’s absolutely overexposed. Now look at the right picture frame… It casts a shadow on the wall behind it. In the HDR this shadow is not so prominent and you can see lots of details while in the regular photo there’s not much to see in that area.

Pro HDR is one of the best HDR apps for the iPhone, and even though it does not achieve the same results as my photo gear and Mac software, it is remarkable what this little app can automatically do using your iPhone only. It’s a must have, really useful for capturing those tricky light scenes you may come across, and for the price – €2.49/$1.99 in the App Store – it’s a bargain. The developers, EyeApps LLC, also have a version for the Android based phones, costing the same as the iPhone version.

Cheers!

An artist's concept of Kepler-22b (Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)

The Kepler spacecraft was launched on March 7, 2009. Its 3.5 year mission was to discover Earth-like planets and yesterday, December 5th 2011, NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the “habitable zone”, the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.

The newly confirmed planet, named “Kepler-22b”, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our sun, with an equilibrium temperature of -11ºC (11ºF). If one includes the effects of a simple model atmosphere, similar to that of Earth, the surface temperature could reach a comfortable 22ºC (71ºF), although there are large uncertainties in every climate model and our definition of habitability is not well established yet.

This diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first "habitable zone" planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. (Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)

Kepler-22b is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth, meaning it is over twice as large as our planet. Scientists don’t yet know if it has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.

It is located 600 light-years away, in a system called “Kepler-22″, and its orbit of 290 days around a sun-like star resembles that of our world. The planet’s host star belongs to the same class as our sun, called G-type, although it is slightly smaller and cooler.

Of the 54 habitable zone planet candidates reported in February 2011, Kepler-22b is the first to be confirmed. At this moment there are 48 planet candidates in their star’s habitable zone. While this is a decrease from the 54 reported in February, the Kepler team has applied a stricter definition of what constitutes a habitable zone in the new catalog, to account for the warming effect of atmospheres, which would move the zone away from the star, out to longer orbital periods.

Location of Kepler-22 in the night sky

Kepler discovers planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars to search for planets that cross in front, or “transit,” the stars. Kepler requires at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.

The Kepler science team uses ground-based telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope to review observations on planet candidates the spacecraft finds. The star field that Kepler observes in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra can only be seen from ground-based observatories in spring through early fall. The data from these other observations help determine which candidates can be validated as planets.

Kepler observed many large planets in small orbits early in its mission, which were reflected in the February data release. Having had more time to observe three transits of planets with longer orbital periods, the new data suggest that planets one to four times the size of Earth may be abundant in the galaxy.

Kepler-22b – Technical details:

Kepler-22′s star - Technical details:

* * *

Related links:
NASA’s News
NASA’s Kepler Mission
Kepler Science Conference News Briefing Press Kit
NASA’s Ames Research Center

grinnin' in your face

WordFoto is one of those little great apps we come across once in a while. It does exactly what it claims, and does it very well and very easily. The interface is intuitive and there nothing is very complicated in this app. I believe this is always a plus because if an app is too complicated to use, chances are that most people will eventually stop using it anyway.

With WordFoto you will definitely surprise your friends and probably get a couple WOWs!  You just have to be creative choosing a set of words that give meaning to the photo you’ve taken (not necessarily in a humorous way, though I think this app has the potential to create very well humored results).

The process is really easy:

- Choose a photo from the library or take one inside the app;

- Crop it if you like. To do so you have presets of 1:1, 4:3 and 16:9, or you can crop it exactly as you like in free mode;

- Add a new word set or choose one from the 22 presets;

- Change the style you prefer from 8 presets and that’s it!!! Or… if you want to go a little deeper custom it has you like tweaking the brightness, blur, saturation, contrast and/or padding, choosing different colors for the shadows and highlights, changing the font (it comes with 25 different fonts);

- If you like you can fine tune the photo a little bit by adjusting parameters like the edge, edge threshold and color tolerance.

- Save the final result to the library, share it on Facebook or email it right from the app!

Note that the resulting word images are full resolution, and you can also zoom in the photo to inspect detail, which is always useful in any photo app.

It retails for $1.99/€1.59 in the App Store.

Have fun. Cheers!

The Pleiades

The M45 is one of my favorite objects of the deep sky. So I decided to post here a fantastic photo of them, along with some technical aspects and excerpts of a couple Wikipedia articles with great info.

In astronomy, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (Messier object 45), is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.

The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster (hence the alternate name Maia Nebula after the star Maia), but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium that the stars are currently passing through.

The Pleiades are a prominent sight in winter in the Northern Hemisphere and in summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and have been known since antiquity to cultures all around the world, including the Māori, Aboriginal Australians, the Persians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Maya, the Aztec, and the Sioux and Cherokee.

Some technical info

Pleiades Map

Pleiades in folklore and literature

Bible

In the Bible the Pleiades are mentioned as Khima (Amos 5:8), and also in Job 38:31 as the Lord speaks to Job. The Lord tells Job that he bound the Pleiades together. Talmud (Bavli, Berakhot, 58b) says that it has about 100 stars, understanding the word כימה as כמאה ke’ me-ah, “about one hundred” in Hebrew.

They are known as kimah in Jewish culture.

Arab world

In Arabic the Pleiades are known as al-Thurayya الثريا, and mentioned in Islamic literature. The name was borrowed into Turkish as a female name, and is in use in both Turkey (as Surayya) and Arab countries (for example Thoraya Obaid). It is also the name of the Thuraya satellite phone system based in the United Arab Emirates.

Europe

The word has acquired a meaning of “multitude”, inspiring the name of the French literary movement La Pléiade and an earlier group of Alexandrian poets, the Alexandrian Pleiad.

Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, the stars of Pleiades represented the Seven Sisters. They were the seven daughters of the titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione, born on Mount Cyllene. Their names are Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope and Merope.

Western astrology

In Western astrology they represent coping with sorrow and were considered a single one of the medieval fixed stars. As such, they are associated with quartz and fennel. In esoteric astrology the seven solar systems revolve around Pleiades.

Celtic mythology

To the Bronze Age people of Europe, such as the Celts (and probably considerably earlier), the Pleiades were associated with mourning and with funerals, since at that time in history, on the cross-quarter day[dubious – discuss] between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice (see Samhain, also Halloween or All Souls Day), which was a festival devoted to the remembrance of the dead, the cluster rose in the eastern sky as the sun’s light faded in the evening. It was from this acronychal rising that the Pleiades became associated with tears and mourning. As a result of precession over the centuries, the Pleiades no longer marked the festival, but the association has nevertheless persisted, and may account for the significance of the Pleiades astrologically.

Indigenous peoples of the Américas

In the ancient Andes, the Pleiades were associated with abundance, because they return to the Southern Hemisphere sky each year at harvest-time. In Quechua they are called collca’ (storehouse).

The Hopi built their underground kivas for multiple utilitarian uses, the most important of which was a ceremonial meeting place. Access was through a ladder in a small hole in the roof of the kiva, and during certain ceremonies, the night passage of the Pleiades over the center of the opening was a direct signal to begin a certain ceremony. Most of the cultures used the angle of the Pleiades in the night sky as a time telling device.

The early Monte Alto Culture and others in Guatemala such as Ujuxte and Takalik Abaj, made its early observatories, using the Pleiades and Eta Draconis as reference, they were called the seven sisters, and thought to be their original land.

The ancient Aztecs of Mexico and Central America based their calendar upon the Pleiades. Their year began when priests first remarked the asterism heliacal rising in the east, immediately before the sun’s dawn light obliterated the view of the stars. Aztecs called the Pleiades Tianquiztli (meaning “marketplace”).

Japan

In Japan, the Pleiades are known as 昴 Subaru, and have given their name to the car manufacturer whose logo incorporates six stars to represent the five smaller companies that merged into one. Subaru Telescope, located in Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii, is also named after the Pleiades.

Indian astrology

In Indian astrology the Pleiades were known as the asterism (nakshatra) Kṛttikā (which in Sanskrit is translated as “the cutters”). The Pleiades are called the star of fire, and their ruling deity is the Vedic god Agni, the god of the sacred fire. It is one of the most prominent of the nakshatras, and is associated with anger and stubbornness.

Sub-Saharan Africa

In the Swahili language of East Africa they are called “kilimia” which comes from the verb -lima meaning “dig” or “cultivate” as their visibility was taken as a sign to prepare digging as the onset of the rain was near.

In the closely related Sesotho language of the Southern Africa’s Basotho people the Pleiades are called “Seleme se setshehadi” (“the female planter”). Its disappearance in April (the 10th month) and the appearance of the star Achernar signals the beginning of the cold season. Like many other Southern African cultures, Basotho associate its visibility with agriculture and plenty.

Modern beliefs – UFOs

In Ufology some believers describe Nordic alien extraterrestrials (called Pleiadeans) as originating from this system. A contactee named Billy Meier claims to have met with them.

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Note: The image used in this post is a color-composite image of the Pleiades from the Digitized Sky Survey. Credit: NASA/ESA/AURA/Caltech

what lies behind the sofa

Much has been written about Hipstamatic. Some like it, some don’t, as always… It appears that no one is indifferent to it though.

The Hipstamatic – physical – camera was first developed in 1982. It was conceived in Wisconsin by Bruce and Winston Dorbowski, the late brothers of Hipstamatic app creator Richard Dorbowski.

The original Hipstamatic was a 35 mm view finder camera, shooting 28mm by 28 mm photos that had a plastic body and a plastic lens. To know more I recommend you

take a look at this post written by Richard Dorbowski.

The app is solid and gives consistent results. It’s one of my favorite point and shoot apps for the iPhone, and even though point and shoot is exactly the spirit, some people look at the impossibility of processing library photos as an handicap. I truly understand their frustration, but on the developer’s side the most important is to actually simulate an analogue camera, which obviously means that you have little control over the final result. You just take the shot and the result is whatever comes up after processing the film. At least theoretically speaking, because the truth is that in analogue photography you can influence the result if you cross process the film. Of course that’s not the same thing as picking up a photo from the library and applying several FX effects to it so you can see which one works best for that photo.

Spring leafs

In a way the developer is sticking to the real deal. But I agree that it would be much better if the app allowed the user to choose between processing library photos or shooting them in app. It’d merely be the user’s desire that would dictate how to use Hipstamatic.

Another downside of an exclusive in app shooting, whereas the iPhone camera has some restrictions, is that you will obviously have problems in some difficult light situations and you can end up simply discarding the app.

However and because in most situations – I’m talking about casual snapshots – the iPhone camera does the job, this is something that hopefully won’t pose many problems.

About the good stuff now! To me, Hipstamatic is still the king of iPhone apps. It has plenty of features you’ll certainly love. You can choose several parameters that influence the final result, namely: lens, film and flash. Some of these are given to you right away; others are only accessible via in app purchase. Usually they come in a pack, so you must buy the whole pack. Some packs have a lens, a film and a flash. Look at the following table to get an overview of the included equipment as well as the packs and their contents:

Each pack costs €0,79/$0,99 and the app costs €1,59/$1,99, which means that if you want to purchase the whole features it’ll cost you €6,33/$7,93, but it’s worth the money!

chair

By the way, they often release cool limited pack editions so stay tuned with Hipstamart (Hipstamatic gear shop where you can also order prints if you like).

It’s impossible to tell the exact final effect of a photo taken with Hipstamatic because lens, film and flash work in tandem, which means that the final result depends on the combination of these. But don’t get worried! You’ll get the hang of it after using the app for a while. Then it’ll be just a matter of intuition when choosing the combination for a particular scene/subject. But to give you a hand, certainly useful if you’re just starting to know Hipstamatic, further on I’ll give you an insight on the main characteristics of each lens and film. It can be useful as a reference.

wood & wool

Hipstamatic has a learning curve and you must be aware that. Don’t get disappointed or frustrated if your first photos look a little awkward. Keep trying different combinations because some work best and some don’t. There is also something you must never forget: most of the times when you get a bad result don’t blame the lens/film/flash combination right away… You must have in mind that the guilt may well rely on the shooting conditions, namely on the available light. And here’s exactly where your intuition comes to play. If you keep using the app, you’ll get to a point where you barely make a mistake, which is to say that the evaluation of the shooting conditions and the consequent adequacy of your choices will become a natural and exciting process. A surefire method to speed this up is to change only one of the items at a time leaving the other two as they are. Sometimes the resulting differences are obvious and sometimes they are subtle, but if you change only one item at a time you’ll be able to notice all the resulting differences regardless if they are obvious or subtle.

Here’s a list of the main characteristics/effects created by each lens, film and flash as stated in the app and in the Hipstamatic Field Guide, as well as a collection of some of the main app screens where, among other things, you can see the three available camera cases.

Lenses

John S
A good all-round lens. Works well in low light, bright light, and just about any other scenario. It creates a vignette effect with saturation in cool tones.

Jimmy
Gives a greenish yellow hue to all images.

Kaimal Mark II
Strong low contrast reddish-pink hue to all subjects.

Helga Viking
Strong low contrast purple and red hue to all subjects.

Lucifer VI
Highly saturated colors, very sharp focus. Gives a diagonal rainbow red strips at 45 degree angle which may or may not be visible at all times.

Roboto Glitter
Strong purple and teal shade added to a center focus star burst pattern.

Bettie XL
A lens prone to light leaks with unexpected results.

Chunky
Cinematic tones and warm leaks.

Films

Blanko
Film produces a print that most closely resembles a white-border print from your local photolab. This film provides the most rudimentary image possible.

Ina’s 1969
Final image will have a rounded corner and textured boarder emblematic of a mid-50′s to late 60′s era photo album.

Ina’s 1935
Film has subdued faded “image to border” appearance. Texture gives sense that film is reflective and vivid.

Kodot XGrizzled
Film, rather print paper which appears to have jagged edges similar to that of a image print that was not properly squared up in a paper holder used to frame paper under an enlarger.

BlacKeys Ultrachrome (aka BlacKeys B+W)
Despite the name, this is not a black and white film. It reduces most saturation from color image leaving a monochromatic appearance with a slight trace of color. Date minus thirty years left imprinted at the bottom of the image. Note the name BlacKeys B+W is used interchangeably with BlacKeys Ultrachrome.

BlacKeys SuperGrain
Black background, and faded contrast images.

Claunch 72 Monochrome
Warm medium-contrast monochrome film with a simple black border.

Alfred Infrared
Gives film a strong bias toward red and yellow spectrum.

Pistil
Film appears as a positive (slide) with borders resembling that of medium format 120 format 6×6 roll film. The top of the image will have an affected sheen finish, giving the appearance of a reflection.

Float
Float film gives the impression of TTV (Through The Viewfinder) photographing of a subject through the viewfinder of any camera with another camera.

Cano Cafenol
A mysteriously aged darkness. An alternative to sepia processing.

Blanko Noir
A classic and balanced film.

Flashes

App screens

Finally, you’ve probably heard about David Guttenfelder, an Associated Press photographer who, using only his iPhone and Hipstamatic, captured the daily lives of Marines, Afghan soldiers and other journalists during the military offensive in Marjah, Afghanistan. I said that you’ve probably heard about David Guttenfelder because of all the controversial surrounding the use of the iPhone and Hipstamatic. The press talked about it and some, so called or self-proclaimed, “intellectuals” immediately arose to say that Hipstamatic somewhat changed the captured scenes (don’t know how it could be… seems to me that these guys are merely a bunch of bozos saying that most of the shots taken before the 90’s had nothing but inaccuracies that twisted and changed reality! Whatever…). See Guttenfelder’s photos here!

Have great shots and lots of fun!!

Cheers!