Happy Birthday to Sir Brian May, born 19 July 1947, musician extraordinaire and astrophysicist ๐.
May graduated from Imperial College London with a BSc degree in math and physics. He worked on his PhD in astrophysics from 1970 to 1974, until his musical career took off. He finished it in 2006-2007!
Lately, May has collaborated with NASA on the New Horizons, OSIRIS-REx and DART missions, with JAXA on Hayabusa2 and with ESA on the Hera mission.
๐ธ๐ช ๐ญ
Here is a pair of stereoscopic images of the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam, taken from the NASA Lucy spacecraft on Nov 1, 2023 and expertly stereo-processed by Dr. Brian May and Claudia Manzoni.
To view, either relax the axes of your eyes, as if staring through the screen to infinity (so that you are looking at the left image with your left eye and the right image with your right eye) or use a stereoscope. Is easier with a smaller image.
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/lucy/2023/11/29/satellite-discovered-by-nasas-lucy-mission-gets-name/
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Here are two sets of stereo images of asteroid Ryugu as observed by the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission in 2019 and processed by Dr. Brian May ๐ธ and Claudia Manzoni.
Each stereo image pair is shown in two versions - one can be viewed by focusing at infinity, the other cross-eyed.
https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20190710e_Stereo_DrMay/
Credit: JAXA/Hayabusa2/Claudia Manzoni/Brian May
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The many talents of Sir Brian May, PhD.
Check out the long list of his books at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Brian+May+books&crid=22RZ12GRQBYST&sprefix=brian+may+books%2Caps%2C146
Happy 78th Birthday ๐
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Dr. Brian May and Dr. Patrick Michel explaining the Hera mission, Mars and its moon Deimos, on March 12, 2025, when ESAโs Hera spacecraft performed a gravity-assist flyby of Mars at 5,000 km altitude.
More about that event at https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/114149674725590429
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Attached: 1 image "Dr Brian May, Astrophysicist, Stereoscopist and Guitarist" ๐ ๐ธ
For those who failed to recognize a stereo pair of 3d images immediately (or failed to read the alt text description) Dr. May is a noted enthusiast of stereo photography, and this pair of images is no exception.
Stare as if focusing past your screen and merge the overlapping double images. Smart phones are actually almost ideal for viewing these; turn your phone to landscape orientation.
He's been at this a while, he also invented the bathroom selfie:
Brian May wrote the song '39 fifty years ago.
I have always thought astronomy inspired him to write it.
"Your mother's eyes
In your eyes
Cry to me."
@AkaSci what an absolute LEGEND!
Deep down, I knew that he was Newton's reincarnation in a way!
AkaSci ๐ฐ๏ธ
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