NASA's Juno spacecraft is shown in orbit above Jupiter's colorful clouds in this artist's rendering. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Even though NASA is no longer in the business of deploying manned-missions to outer space, they continue to explore the cosmos in ways that have never before been possible.  Their next target is Earth's bigger, gassier neighbor: Jupiter.

On August 5, 2011 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in conjunction with the Southwest Research Institute launched the Juno mission,  which NASA says will, "improve our understanding of the solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter."

This is a pretty big deal in the world of astrophysics.   NASA scientists theorize they will be able to determine the origin of The Giant Planet, "and thereby the solar system" by measuring the amount of water and ammonia in Jupiter's atmosphere.

Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio explains the significance of the mission:

"Jupiter is the Rosetta Stone of our solar system.  It is by far the oldest planet, contains more material than all the other planets, asteroids and comets combined, and carries deep inside it the story of not only the solar system but of us. Juno is going there as our emissary — to interpret what Jupiter has to say."

But scientists will have to wait a few years to test their theories.  Even though Juno is traveling at a relative speed of over 13,000 miles an hour, it is not scheduled to reach its final destination until July 2016.

And the ride to Jupiter is not exactly a clear path.  Juno will face many obstacles – including large mentors – that can potentially derail the $1.1 billion project.

Thankfully, scientists can rely on old "maps," or astro-photographic images of the night sky to plan a flight path that will steer the spacecraft away from debris.

Dr. Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, says the astro-photographic plates housed at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) contributed directly to the success of the Juno mission;

"Juno, for example, in order for it to be successful they have to design it.  And one of the things they have to design it for is to protect it from meteoroids out in space.  Well we never measured meteoroids around Jupiter, because we don't go there very often, right?  So we have to take what             we've learned here at Earth to help us design that spacecraft to go to Jupiter and those negatives [at the Astronomical Photographic Data Archive] helped formulate the model we used to design that spacecraft to go to Jupiter.

Dr. Cooke is referring to a collection of nearly 150,000 old astro-photographic plates and film known as APDA, or the Astronomical Photographic Data Archive.  The APDA collection is stored at PARI's secure facility in Western North Carolina.

Dr. Cooke became aware of the collection a few years ago and has quickly become on of its biggest advocates:

"The photo archive which contains a lot of the photographs that form the basis of modern meteor science are housed … at ADPA.  They collected them from around the country, but those old photographs, that data, formed the basis for everything we know now in regards to meteors.  So it's kind of like visiting a treasure trove of ancient data.  The great hieroglyphic inscriptions out there in APDA."

Brendan Fallon of the American Meteor Society examines film in the APDA collection.

The connection between APDA and the Juno mission came full orbit during this year's annual NASA Fireball Workshop, which took place at PARI's Rosman, North Carolina campus.  Attendees were able to watch the Juno launch and then walk into the archives to hold the original pieces of film that helped Juno's engineers develop a safe flight path.

By relying on old astronomical plates and film – some of which date over 100 years old – today's astronomers can safely stand on the shoulders of their predecessors and reach for the stars, without fear of being knocked down by meteors.

For more info check out NASA's website for the JUNO mission:

twitter: @NASAJuno

http://missionjuno.swri.edu/

Before he takes the plunge, Mr. Austin spends months preparing to film in the wild by working with whale biologists who study specific populations of whales. Mr. Austin travels with these experts, to identify unique individual whales who posses the personality and sense of curiosity to be agreeable subjects. Austin returns to the whales day after day to build a sense of familiarity which will eventually allow them to feel comfortable enough to approach him on their own terms. Swimming with whales is intrinsically very dangerous if for no other reason than their enormous size. A single accidental flick from a pectoral fin or fluke could pummel a human swimmer. A threatened whale or a mother protecting her calf can be particularly dangerous. While whales have the potential to be destructive, it is much more likely that a whale disturbed by a human swimmer will simply swim away. For this reason Austin works hard to build the trust of his subjects.

Whales, like humans, are intelligent mammals that live within social structures. As such, whales have a kind of etiquette based on behavioral cues. To get close enough to photograph the whales Mr. Austin has to abide by a different species code of conduct. For example, Austin does not use SCUBA while visiting the whales because the bubbles produced by the equipment can be construed as a threat display between whales.

“Although we can’t communicate with whales verbally, you can communicate intention. And I do this by being very slow and predictable when I move. And I remain motionless most of the time, and I want to communicate to them that I’m interested in them, but I’m also respectful, and I’m just going be very passive and patient. Most of the time, they ignore me or swim away, and there’s just that, those few exceptional moments in the season where they decide to come up to me and spend a few moments”

It's within these few rare moments that Bryant Austin is able to create his stunning photographs. In fact, his entire collection to date represents interactions with only 9 particularly curious individual whales. As top predators, whales generally tend to demonstrate curiosity in exploring their environment. Some species like humpback whales tend to be more curious than other species, but even within a species individual whales will show different personality traits. Through his non-profit organization Marine Mammal Conservation Through the Arts, Mr. Austin works for months for the brief seconds and minutes when the whales come to inspect him.

“The camera I’m holding in a way is like the world’s eye, humanity’s eye, so we can make whales visible and hopefully change our perception and behavior towards them. So it’s ironic that this little 210-pound person really can be more powerful than this 40-ton whale.”

Here's a recent photo from "Music and Games Galore", part of The Tech Museum's new adults-only monthly event, "After Hours".

Please vote on your favorite caption by Friday, September 2. The winning entry will receive (2) free tickets to their upcoming After Hours event, "DNA With A Twist", on Wednesday, September 7. The winner will also receive a QUEST prize package.

UPDATE: The contest is now closed. Congrats to Arlene, the winner of the contest, with her submission: "Just a little further now, all that Yoga gotta to pay off. All TECH considered."

Here's a recent photo from "Music and Games Galore", part of The Tech Museum's new adults-only monthly event, "After Hours". Put your creative hats on and participate in our photo caption contest with The Tech Museum. Submit only (1) caption for this photo in the comments section below by Friday, August 26. Then we'll take all the submissions and have you vote on which one you like best. The winning entry will receive (2) free tickets to their upcoming After Hours event, "DNA With A Twist", on Wednesday, September 7. The winner will also receive a QUEST prize package.

“Pleasanton Circular File ” by Steven Christenson

Back in the early days of QUEST, when we were first piloting the Your Photos on QUEST segments, Steven Christenson was one of the first photographers to respond to our call for submissions, posting on the QUEST YPOQ Flickr page his set of photos from Mission Peak Preserve near Fremont, California.

When I was trolling for our first YPOQ photographer for the new season of QUEST TV, I went back to some of those early submissions and was immediately struck by Christenson’s set of vibrant, kinetic images, especially his night sky photographs and star circles. Not only are they totally unique and beautiful, there’s obviously a good story to be told in how he actually makes them.

Shooting photographs in very low light is a special skill, one that Christenson has honed to a fine art over the last few years. In fact, he’s gotten so good at it, he was honored as one of the winners of the International Astronomy Photographer of the Year, 2010 awards in the “People and Space” category. Here’s his winning photo, taken at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur, California. He shot it as people gathered on the beach during one of the few days each year when the setting sun shines directly through the archway of a large rock formation.

“Photon Worshipers” by Steven Christenson

“Bristlecone Pine Star Circle ” by Steven Christenson

Indeed the process of “finding light in the darkness”, as Christenson puts it, is more involved than one might imagine. First off, you have to get to a place that has a good vantage point on the stars. In Christenson’s case, this usually involves driving and/ or hiking a good distance before he even sets down the tripod. Then, you have to deal with the notoriously foggy/ rainy/ cold Bay Area weather. He’s been battling with the weather at Pigeon Point Light House State Historic Park in Pescadero for years. But he’s managed to get some spectacular images there nonetheless.

Once all the stars align so to speak, and Christenson has set up his shot, the waiting begins. As the earth rotates and orbits the sun, the stars appear to travel through the sky and his camera is set to take an image at set intervals. It can take all night for him to get the images he needs to stitch together his final images. He often sleeps in his car or out under the open sky if weather permits.

For our shoot with Christenson, he took us hiking up Mission Peak, his favorite location in the Bay Area to shoot. Between our audio tech, Helen, associate producer Josh and myself, we’ve collectively lived in the Bay Area for more than half a century and none of us had ever been to Mission Peak. It’s absolutely spectacular up there. It’s one of the things I love most about this job that I have the opportunity to see and experience things that have been under my nose for years but have never noticed.

And if you’d like to join Steven Christenson for a nighttime photography tour of Mission Peak or several other Bay Area locations, be sure to check out the Star Circle Academy website.

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

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We'd like to thank everyone who participated in our photo caption contest with The Monterey Bay Aquarium! Now vote on your favorite entry, and the winner will receive (2) free tickets to the Aquarium. Voting closes on Thursday, January 13th.

View Poll

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Write a caption for me! Click here for a larger version.

We are running a photo caption contest with The Monterey Bay Aquarium! Submit only (1) caption in the comments selection below by Thursday, January 6th, 2011. Then we'll take all the submissions and have you vote on which one you like best. The winning entry will receive (2) free tickets to the Aquarium.

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The Kinect is a hacker's favorite new toy.

In early November Microsoft unveiled the Kinect, a controller-free gaming add-on to the Xbox 360. The Kinect is similar to the Nintendo Wii in that it relies on the players movement to engage with the game. Unlike the Wii, the Kinect does not require the player to use a handheld device, instead relying on a natural user interface using gesture and spoken commands.

The Kinect works by emitting beams of infrared light and measuring the time it takes for the light to reflect off of objects in the scene and return to the infrared camera. It encodes information in the infrared light and as some of that information is returned, and altered, it allows the Kinect to create a more accurate image of the 3D-objects' texture.

The technology was intriguing enough that many hackers and DIY enthusiasts began to hack the Kinect and see how they could modify its sensors and output.

But hacking isn't always about tearing a device apart and re-engineering it. Hacking also includes using a device in an unexpected way, revealing new features and uses. In that spirit, Bay Area photographer, Audrey Penven, created a series of beautiful photographs that take advantage of the Kinect's infrared light.

In her photographic series, Dancing with Invisible Light, Penven explains her inspiration:

"With these images I was exploring the unique photographic possibilities presented by using a Microsoft Kinect as a light source. The Kinect – an inexpensive videogame peripheral – projects a pattern of infrared dots known as "structured light". Invisible to the eye, this pattern can be captured using an infrared camera. The Kinect uses the deformation of this dot pattern to derive 3D information about its subjects (an ability which has already spawned an explosion of incredible digital art).

As a photographer I am most interested in the nature and quality of light: how light behaves in the physical world, and how it interacts with and affects the subjects that it illuminates. For this shoot my models and I were essentially working blind, with the results visible only after each image was captured. Together, we explored the unique physicality of structured light, finding our way in the darkness by touch and intuition. Dancing with invisible light."

Visit Penven's Flickr page to view all her photos (some NSFW).

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After spending the day with Ron Wolf, I doubt I’ll ever look at the ground the same way anymore!

The YPOQ segments are some of my favorites. But to be honest, it’s getting harder and harder to find photographers who are doing something unique. Being one of the newer members of the QUEST team, I decided to go back to some of the Flickr sets we received before I got here, and find out what those photographers are up to now.

There, I found Ron Wolf’s photostream. As it was the middle of winter, I was surprised to see that his photos were taken recently, until I realized that I was looking at the fruits of the California winter. All of his recent images were of mushrooms and slime, and surprisingly QUEST had not broached this topic yet.

I know, I know, slime and fungi – seen it, ignored it, they’re gross, right? Wrong!
I really had no idea there is such a plethora of fungi here in the Bay Area, and I’ve never looked closely at a slime mold before. Now, after spending the day with Ron Wolf, I doubt I’ll ever look at the ground the same way anymore!

Fungi (to which both mushrooms and slime belong) are found worldwide, and most are inconspicuous due to their small size, and their cryptic lifestyles in soil and on dead matter. But fungi perform an essential role in the natural cycle of our environment.

"They’re a major factor in decomposition of wood and plant matter," says Ron Wolf. "I mean, the reason the planet is not 20 or 40 or 50 feet deep in leaf litter and dead wood and all the rest is the process of decomposition and digestion of this organic matter. And that’s a function of fungi.”

Even so, most people don’t know much about fungi, including the fact that they are likely right under their feet!

Ron adds, "Well, the funny thing is, it’s not so much you find hidden places. To wander the trails you want to hike, and in the process of going down the trail, you sort of keep your eyes open for what’s where, what’s likely to be where. So I mean, I don’t think these as hidden spots. If we were to go over there and just start prowling around under any of these other trees, go down to the stream there, we’d probably find you know, 30 other hidden spots in the rest of the day. And it’s just a matter of looking. The old Yogi Berra line, you can see a lot just by lookin’. And that’s the way it is with fungi and wildflowers and it’s much more train your eye to pick up what’s all around you. And because it’s actually everywhere."

During the rest of the year, Ron spends his time photographing the world around him – birds, mammals, minerals and stones, etc. He has made a large contribution to UC Berkeley’s Cal Photos project, a taxonomic digital image database searchable by species, genus, class, etc., and available for use by the public and by educators.

Ron has added over 3,000 images to this project, as he continues to further our knowledge and appreciation of what might very well be right under your nose.

Watch Your Photos on QUEST – Ron Wolf television story online.

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Doug Nomura in action on the Bay Trail.

Something about San José photographer Doug Nomura’s pictures of birds in flight, or attempting to get off the ground to fly, grabs you.  I think it’s the sheer energy and effort that the photos convey.

It’s especially timely to be broadcasting our profile of Nomura as the Your Photos on QUEST 2-minute segment on our Oct. 13 television episode, since the Bay Area is inundated with migratory birds starting in October.  The Bay Area is on the Pacific Flyway, a major north-south route of travel for migratory birds in the Americas, extending from Alaska to Patagonia.  As a result, close to 700,000 ducks are usually counted in the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta during October, said John Takekawa, research wildlife biologist with the US Geological Service. Raptors like hawks and falcons also stop over in the Bay Area in fall and winter.

Doug Nomura looks forward to the beginning of the migration in October because it multiplies his opportunities to photograph birds in flight.  He stalks his subjects along the Bay Trail, a shoreline trail that will eventually hug the entire circumference of the San Francisco Bay.  When the Bay Trail is complete, it will be 500 miles long.  Currently, the public can enjoy almost 300 miles of paths.  Nomura, whose day job is as a computer network security specialist, is an avid fan.  “This allows me to turn the cell phone off and go out there for a couple of hours,” he said.  “It’s some of the best therapy one can give oneself and it doesn’t cost anything.  I’d like my photographs to inspire people to visit the Bay Trail to look at the wildlife and appreciate what we have in our backyard.”

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