[HN Gopher] Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of...
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Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun
Author : doener
Score : 167 points
Date : 2025-11-16 11:02 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.iflscience.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.iflscience.com)
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| > The silhouette of Brown is neatly demarcated against the
| bubbling surface of the Sun. His downward trajectory is perfectly
| framed between sunspots, active regions on the surface of the Sun
| that are slightly cooler than their surrounding areas. This is
| not just a pretty picture; it is truly a masterpiece
|
| Excuse me while I go wash off the stench of AI-generated
| descriptions. The picture is very nice, though.
| causal wrote:
| > This is not just a ...
|
| Dead giveaway
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| Kagi just launched an AI flagging feature. This is something
| HN needs.
|
| I don't mind AI content. But I'm not going to read it
| carefully before commenting, and will double check it with
| real sources before changing my mind about anything.
| squigz wrote:
| Has AI content detection become at all competent?
| Swenrekcah wrote:
| I think we probably need to go the other way, a comment
| or article needs a 'faceId' check before submission to
| get human stamp.
|
| Of course that brings a whole another set of problems.
| squigz wrote:
| That sort of thing is trivial to bypass and is a massive
| privacy violation.
| codingdave wrote:
| From what I have seen, AI can detect AI better than
| humans. Humans are bringing baggage into it and vilifying
| legit writing techniques just because AI uses them. The
| whole concept that AI was trained on human writing,
| therefore uses well-known and proven writing techniques,
| but that those techniques are _not exclusive to AI_ is
| utterly lost on some people.
|
| The "dead giveaways" are not writing patterns, it is
| depth. AI will stay at a surface level when using
| argumentative writing patterns, whereas humans will add
| supporting information and connect the dots across
| sentences and paragraphs. It is the lack of connective
| language between thoughts and phrases that flag an AI.
| TylerE wrote:
| HN can't even get it's web front end out of the 90s or meet
| basic accessibility standards.
| schiffern wrote:
| AI-diom _(n.)_ - an idiom which, while not exclusive to AI,
| is so frequent in AI output as to strongly suggest its use
| BuyMyBitcoins wrote:
| Let's bump up the AI even more, instead of "dead giveaway"
| you should have used _hence_.
| dylan604 wrote:
| it's from iflscience which I would be shocked if there were
| more than 10 humans working for that site. it is so heavily
| loaded with ads/tracking that it gives no indication of giving
| a shit about its readers. i saw several parts of the site not
| loading due to uBO. just to see what was missing, i disabled
| uBO and after refreshing was presented with a blocking popup
| that says "our site depends heavily on" blah blah with a link
| to how to disable the blocker for the site. however, that's how
| i got to the modal was by disabling the blocker. the site was
| more functional with it enabled.
|
| again, what would one expect from a site that has that feel of
| doing nothing than hoping to generate a viral headline just to
| infect those unfortunate to have actually followed the link
| wincy wrote:
| It's a very cool picture. Andrew McCarthy sells prints of these
| and other astrophotography on his website[0] although they're
| always limited run prints. I bought the one of the sun with a
| SpaceX rocket for a friend who is into astronomy.
|
| As a sales strategy, making his photos limited edition is a
| fantastic way to put the pressure on to actually buy instead of
| thinking about making a purchase indefinitely, even if from a
| convenience standpoint it's a little annoying. Looks like right
| now the 16"x20" edition is sold out, but other sizes are still
| available for about two days.
|
| [0] https://cosmicbackground.io/pages/the-fall-of-icarus
| dahart wrote:
| > making his photos limited edition is a fantastic weay to put
| the pressure on to actually buy
|
| FWIW, limited edition printing is absolutely standard practice
| for working artists who use media that can be easily or
| mechanically replicated, including photographers, printers, and
| digital artists.
|
| The feeling of FOMO that it instills is indeed one reason, that
| benefits the artist, but the main reason limited editions are
| used is to add value to the art through scarcity, and this
| reason benefits you the buyer. People don't want to be the
| first to find and buy something unique only to have it get so
| popular that all your friends and neighbors go buy the same
| thing, right?
|
| The story of uniqueness is important. There's a very real
| perception that art that can be reproduced indefinitely and is
| always available is cheap and not really fine art. Limited
| editions prints are trying, even if half-heartedly, to compete
| with painters and sculptors who produce something unique every
| single time. I say half-heartedly as a digital artist who
| prints limited editions, not as an insult. There is a slight
| degree of having cake and eating too. Limited editions are
| usually sized near the estimated sales limit, or such that the
| artist can move on to selling other work without feeling like
| they lost a big opportunity.
|
| Limited edition print runs do lower the price of a print, but
| not as low as the cost of printing. If an artist does editions
| of size 1, they need to make enough money to live, and
| $90/print won't do it if you only sell one. You can spread the
| profit across a run and give a group of people something for a
| low price instead of giving one person a high price.
| LargeWu wrote:
| If there's any difference between printmaking and
| photography, it's that printmaking requires one to physically
| print each item. There's a non-trivial amount of manual setup
| to do, and the process can take days.
|
| Photography can be printed basically on-demand owing to the
| nature of the medium.
|
| It doesn't mean that limited runs in photography are less
| valid, though. Once that print is editioned no reputable
| artist will just print more. (although there are ways around
| it, like different colorways) It definitely makes the item
| more "collectible".
| TylerE wrote:
| A lot of modern prints aren't really made like that.
| They're just run off on (basically) nice commercial
| inkjets.
|
| Sure that's not exactly fine art, but there's a big market
| for it, including things like collectors. Virtually all
| concert posters are printed this way, for instance.
| markdown wrote:
| > You can spread the profit across a run and give a group of
| people something for a low price instead of giving one person
| a high price.
|
| Why not somewhere in between those options:
|
| For example (made up numbers), sell 100 units at $100 after
| which the price goes up by $10 for each additional sale. So
| the 100th unit would be $100, the 101st unit $110, the 200th
| unit $1100, and so on.
| mholt wrote:
| I get the whole scarcity thing -- and I've even asked Andrew
| about this -- because if I'm willing to give him my money after
| saving up for it, but it sells out first, wouldn't he make more
| money if he took mine then?
|
| But, I guess we just have to have an art budget with some money
| already set aside if we want to jump on opportunities when
| artists do this. I respect it, but yes it's a bit inconvenient.
|
| PS. The full, uncropped shot is even more incredible IMO:
| https://cosmicbackground.io/cdn/shop/files/Overhead_black_li...
| pixl97 wrote:
| >wouldn't he make more money if he took mine then?
|
| Marketing is far more complex then you're giving it credit
| for. Take the Factorio game, they don't have sales ever so
| the best time to buy the game is now. This both keeps people
| that buy things on sale even if they don't like it from
| getting it, and keeps other people that may wait for a sale
| and forget about it from not buying it now.
|
| The same is true for limited numbers. Some people may want it
| and put it in the cart, but never actually buy it because
| there is no strong binary motivator. This motivator can
| actually increase sales quickly and ensure you dont hold
| inventory for long periods of time.
|
| Also things are commonly bought in batches to reduce price.
| Your one painting later could either be much more expensive
| or require the artist to buy 50/100 units at once that risk
| becoming stuck inventory.
| pbalau wrote:
| > because if I'm willing to give him my money after saving up
| for it, but it sells out first, wouldn't he make more money
| if he took mine then?
|
| If the piece sold out, he made his money.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| It's the same situation with $1000 theater tickets. You
| aren't the market.
| markdown wrote:
| If I were him I would put out a limited edition at a fixed
| price like he currently does, but then add $X0? $X00?
| cumulatively to the price of each additional unit sold.
| jstanley wrote:
| Am I right in thinking he flew up there in a paramotor and then
| jumped off it? What happened to the paramotor? It just crashed in
| a random place you have no control over?
| raddan wrote:
| According to the article there was a pilot in addition to a
| skydiver.
| dahart wrote:
| There's a video of the jump in the article. You can kinda see
| the pilot in the paramotor flying away, as the jumper leaves.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| LOL - the deeper mythological meanings are quite applicable (!)
|
| What meanings, a reader might ask? First to say, art and mythos
| can have layers of meanings..There is no "right answer" exactly.
| think for yourself a moment about "falling" "The Sun", "a son",
| endeavor, catastrophe, and add knowledge or fate as you see fit.
| yzydserd wrote:
| I sort of like it upside down, power of ra.
| russdill wrote:
| Watching the video, the difference between the actual frame
| captured and the manipulated stacked image that's being presented
| is quite stark.
| dahart wrote:
| Is the full-sun photo edited to remove the paramotor? I just
| realized it was in the video shot - the head-down dive "tracking"
| position of the skydiver in the video happens only a few frames
| after jumping, only for a few frames, and after that he's
| tumbling a bit against the sun, with the paramotor still visible.
| I'm guessing even if the video and still were two different
| cameras, they wouldn't have been far enough apart to catch the
| skydiver without the paramotor?
| __atx__ wrote:
| Apparently it took multiple tries to get this right. It is
| possible that the video is from one of the earlier failed
| attempts.
| bangaladore wrote:
| On a Reddit thread somewhere, the OP mentioned the sun is
| taken as a mosaic, where the picture taken with just the
| person is a very small FOV which excludes the paramotor.
| cletusw wrote:
| In the behind the scenes video the photographer makes an
| offhand comment that yes, he was going to take the silhouette
| of the skydiver (and maybe some of the immediate surroundings)
| and composite it with a mosaic of sun images taken around the
| same time (but without the paramotor present).
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| [dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45919692
| dang wrote:
| Related. Others?
|
| _I captured my friend transiting the sun during a skydive_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45919692 - Nov 2025 (12
| comments)
| dvh wrote:
| "what comes up must come down" -- Icarus
| dotancohen wrote:
| "That's not my department" said Wernher von Braun.
| GMoromisato wrote:
| This is a classic example of a simple idea that no one had ever
| done before. The execution was complex, of course, and Andrew
| McCarthy is one of the most skilled astrophotographers. But once
| you get the idea, a number of people could have done it--but no
| one ever did.
|
| Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! You can
| bet McCarthy is already thinking some.
|
| p.s.: My brush with celebrity is that I saw an Andrew McCarthy
| post on Quora when he was first getting started with
| astrophotography and gave him a few tips. Always important to
| remember that everyone was a beginner at one point:
| https://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-pro-tips-for-astrophotog...
| mjamil wrote:
| Your advice there is really valuable. Thanks for providing it.
| I've always wondered how to post-process my night images, and
| this is a really good guide for that.
| GMoromisato wrote:
| Glad it helped! I definitely encourage you to continue
| practicing post-processing. There is a lot of magic there,
| and it's fun too.
| dazbradbury wrote:
| Be great to have the same shot but in front of the moon. Photos
| would make a stunning pair!
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