SPACE.com:
What's Out There seems to aim at both informing readers of the myriad of
objects in the universe while awing them at the same time. Why was it important
to you to offer more than another photo album from space?
Micheal
Soluri: My photographic
approach in researching the visual content for WOT was discovering unique
sources and accessing remarkable images I had never seen before. As a
result, I edited with both the objective of discovering the “seminal” from more
than forty years of astronomical images and a commitment to avoid
repetition. Avoid saying in similar images what can be communicated in
one or a group of remarkable, elegant astronomical images. In some cases, WOT
shows the reader scope and scale through close ups and wide shots, for example,
of the Orion Nebula and the Sun as well as sequential images like the “light
echo” from the exploding red giant Monocerotis. While the images in the book
are stunning, they surely represent only a fraction of the ones you sorted
through.
How did
you go about sorting and choosing the final photographs for What's Out There?
As a
photographer, I have been fortunate to both live and shoot in diverse
international settings. One of the precepts to reveal the essence of a people or
place is to shoot and shoot the opportunities presented then edit. So
over a period of three years, I researched through some 15,000
astronomical images to edit a final 212. This approach, however, was not
to limit the range of possibilities to the often default setting of “just
Hubble” imagery. Instead, I wanted to discover astronomical phenomena produced
by little known probes like BMDO’s MSX satellite. From state-of-the-art
adaptive optics and interferometric telescopes at world-wide observatories like
ESO’s VLT (Very Large Telescope) on Chile’s Atacama desert and from some very
adept astro-photographers like Stefan Seip, Axel Mellinger, Fred Espenak and
Bill and Sally Fletcher.
The bulk
of the images we see in What's Out There come from robotic probes or
remote-operated telescopes. In your view, is anything lost in translation when
a robotic camera observes the universe rather than an astronaut?
Given the
evolution of photographic technology, there are significant opportunities from
both robotic and human view points. Ultimately, a combination of intuitive
mobility and conscious choices gives astronauts opportunities to think out to
what they are seeing and respond in terms of camera angles, lenses and quality
of light. The Apollo 12 crew’s—just before re-entering earth’s
atmosphere—imagery of an eclipse of the sun by the earth is a testament to
seizing the moment. However, the recent history of space exploration
photography suggests that among the most memorable images recorded are those
from one-of-a-kind probes like ESA’s Huygen’s that transmitted stunning
panoramas while in descent to the surface of Titan, NASA’s Lunar Orbiter IV’s
image of the moon’s Mare Orientale and the Mars Rover Opportunity’s sublime
macro views within Endurance crater or its micro views of pebbles suggesting
past evidence of water. I guess, though, we’ll have to wait until 2018 or
so to begin to experience how astronauts will view their living and exploring
on the surface of the moon. Hopefully, a half-century leap from the historic
days of Apollo ...
Do you
find it disheartening that in all these images, despite all of the manned and
unmanned missions, concrete evidence of other life in the universe still eludes
us?
No. I
actually find it exciting because our exploration, discovery and observation of
star systems with potential planets—in just this sector of our Milky Way
galaxy—is only in its infancy. So when I consider what I see and
understand of our solar system from just the last 15 years of exploration, it
stirs both my imagination and confidence that either I, my sons or their
children will experience the discovery of “life” somewhere in our solar system
or from some worlds in nearby star systems.
The
Hubble Space Telescope provide some lovely material for What's Out There, but
its future now seems to hinge on whether NASA can send a shuttle flight to
service the orbital observatory. In your view, how vital is Hubble to our
continuing exploration of space?
Here it is
late 2005, not 1965 when astronomers were limited to earth based optical
telescopes and analog transmitting probes just beginning to explore the moon,
Venus and Mars. With the James Webb Space Telescope not scheduled to
service before 2012, a re-serviced Hubble will facilitate eager world-wide astronomers
discoveries we can not imagine. And we need, of course, to imagine, to
wonder; to hope. Hubble is a remarkable testament to the integrity of
human persistence, ingenuity and risk. If ever there was a universal ambassador
that makes accessible the awe and wonder of space exploration, it is the Hubble
Space Telescope.
Which is
more photogenic: planets or stars?
Nothing
against stars and nebulas, I’d choose the planets and their moons given the lighting
possibilities and the resulting atmospheric and surface textures. However
this raises a photographic issue for me: what do the people look like
that build these state-of-the-art telescopes and fly these one-of-a-kind
robotic space craft that produce the kinds of images found in WOT?
If you
could visit any of the places photographed in What's Out There, where
would you go and why?
I’d first
journey to the Apollo 17 landing site—in low angled sun light—and
photographically explore the scope and scale of human evidence left barren on
the edge of the Sea of Serenity. Then I’d love to be in any one of Mars’s
massive river channel basins, like Kasei Vallis—with the right sun angles, the
scale of my shadow to the surrounding red desolateness would be sublime. Being
able to photograph Saturn from one of the liquid methane formed river valley’s
on Titan would be a Bonestell-like experience. Looking back and being
able to see the sun and earth from the space around Pluto and its moons would
offer visualizations and insight Carl Sagen would savor.
Why, in
your view, is a fundamental understanding of the universe important for the
public-at-large?
Absolutely;
since the times of Galileo, astronomy’s knowledge has evolved with considerable
understanding and visual evidence that only seem to provoke yet more questions
as scientist probe farther and farther back into the light years of the early
universe. Look, we live in an era where we have tangible images of what
earth looks like from the moon, mars and Voyager’s “pale-blue-dot”
beyond. We also live in an era that has given us the “Hitch Hikers Guide
to the Galaxy”. At best, I think, we are not just of this remarkable,
fragile water world, but of the stars.
Of all
the images collected for the book, can you pick one that still jumps out at you
from the page and makes you go 'Wow!'?
NGC 6960, a
supernova remnant known as the “Veil Nebula” made by the astronomer Travis
Rector from NOAO’s Kitt Peak National Observatory. My first choice, actually,
for the cover of WOT, my imagination soars wordless. Wordless at both its
beauty and the questions it provokes—simply and elegantly.
Do you
think we'll ever find a limit to what we can observe in the universe?
History
suggests that as long as there is an individual will to think and wonder,
explore and take risks, there are no limits to mankind’s ability in pursuing
the limitless. I marvel at both the persistence and passion of George Ellory
Hale in engineering larger and larger telescopes that—in 1936—culminated in the
200 inch at Palomar. Now just 70 years later, Stephen Hawking’s forward
in WOT sums this up best when he concludes, “It would be boring to have nothing
left to discover”.
