Re: Now released: Peter Goldie's 'corkscrew lightning' photo of Columbia entry

From: Angus Rae (Angus.Rae_at_ed.ac.uk)
Date: 02/25/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 15:42:40 +0000

Jim Oberg wrote:
> Ignore the mega-lightning gobbledegook from the crackpot URL,
> but think about whether the 'bumped camera' explanation makes
> any more sense?

Actually, I think it does. It does depend if this was a film or digital
camera, but - assuming film - it looks to me like a double exposure.

My guess is that the shutter was opened when the Shuttle was 1/4 of the
way across the frame and the camera was bumped in the process, causing
the wiggle as the shuttle proceeded from left to right across the frame
(in fact it looks like the shutter was opened as the camera was being
aimed - the varying brightness of the wiggle looks like the motion was
driven by muscle motion rather than a "bump"). The camera was then
steadied, and a straight trail was produced across the last 1/2 of the
frame.

The photographer then closed the shutter, re-aimed the camera to take
another shot, and re-opened the shutter again without winding on
(probably forgot). This time there was no bump and the camera captured
the shuttle moving from left to right once more. By coincidence
(although the photographer was likely trying as many times as possible
in his viewing window for the same appearance of picture, so it's not
really a surprise) the trail of the second exposure almost matches up
with the first exposure over the second part of the frame. It looks to
me as though it's not _quite_ aligned, and hence the trail looks thicker
as well as brighter once the two trails overlay each other.

Note I'm not a photographic expert, so this is purely what it looks like
to my (untrained) eye. I have taken a few bad photographs though! 

-- 
Angus G Rae                           Science & Engineering Support Team
                                                  University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh University can't have them

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