Astro Stereo Cards Series 1 !!! – Scattered thoughts… and questions

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Claudia Manzoni wrote:

Dearest Dr Bri,

… I finally got them…. !!!!!!! Yes…. !!!!!! I mean… I am very happily enjoying right now my brand new set of LSC Astro Stereo Cards… !!!!

And just can’t help sharing a few thoughts and questions… I’m afraid… !

Twelve of them… plus two bonuses… perfect number – more or less like the tracks in an album ! And what I especially love about them so far – just like the songs in the albums I love – is they are all very different…:

… some are so spectacular and literally flamboyant (e.g. the amazing Ultra-violet Sun – never seen the Sun in such depth before !!)
… others are much more ‘subtle’ and impressive in their apparent simplicity – like the Transit of Venus
… some are extremely rich in sharp details (such as The Moon – by the way, I feel I finally got the reason behind an enigmatic verse from that 20th century wonderful ballad… ‘stare at the Moon all day’ … as now I can do it as well through my OWL… !!!)
… others are very poetically undetailed and elusive, leaving much to your imagination…
… most deal with the subject in a ‘classic’ way, but then there is the experimental one…
… how could you create this perfect mix…. ??!? I just don’t know… !!!

Were they intended to be viewed in a particular order… ?? I wonder… as I noticed they are not numbered… only after mixing them up… ahem !!
I think my favourite is the Total Solar Eclipse at this moment… looks so impossibly real you can’t stare at it for long, just as if you were watching the real thing… amazing !!!!

And… the two bonuses are amazing too… such wonderful 3-D portraits are so stunning and make you feel as if you really ‘met’ those lovely people – a feeling no flat picture will ever be able to give you… !!!

Then… I had a look at the only other 3-D astropictures source I own – the lovely BBC Sky at Night ‘Space 3D’ special magazine you wrote the foreward to in 2009… and compared the OWL/Astro card experience with the mag blue-red glasses/anaglyph experience, as I noticed there are very similar subjects on that mag – the Sun and Mars – and also two anaglyphs from exactly the same photographs as your cards – Buzz Aldrin and Phobos…. Well, I see very clearly that, although the mag images are much bigger and the 3-D effect is very evident, they appear rather gloomy and dark and colourless when viewed through the blue/red glasses, while your cards viewed in an OWL, apart from being beautifully 3-D, obviously keep their natural light and colour… and many colourful details that get completely lost in the anaglyph version, in your stereocards just stand out in all their glory !
So… I wonder… why is the anaglyph format so widespread… ?

In the end… WELL DONE !!!! I certainly need more soon… !

And… talking about albums… the special light blue ‘cover’ containing the Astro Cards looks so lovely too… and I think some music would be great to accompany the Astro Cards viewing experience…. any suggestion ??

Lots of Love,
claudia
XxX

PS … final question… my lovely iridescent pink OWL is asking for details about his future ‘nest’… !!!

Brian replied:

This is a great critique, Claudia … and really my first detailed response. Thanks so much.

May we publish it ?I haven’t made much of a fuss about this first series of cards yet. But I’m quite excited that my New London Stereoscopic Company finally DID publish some cards!!

I have more in process. I hope the interest will spread, so we can get further into real publishing in the near future.

Cheers
Bri
xxx