Re: CGI FT starships (was :Re: A small request.... :-))

>Sorry to reply to my own post, but I had an idea that may be of benefit
to
>those wanting to join in with this..
>
>Turns out there is a decent library of stellar images which don't
appear to
>be under copyright available at
>
>http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/
>
>These would be ideal for backdrops to the sort of images people will be
>making..

FYI (for any intersted) : any Hubble images that are more than a year
old are basically 'public domain' and can pretty much be used as one
sees fit (though it is usually common practice to acknowledge the
original team who took the image(s) if published somewhere). One can
ply the Hubble archives for images to download if one wants to, also
(there are a virtual *ton* of fantastic images that haven't ever been
published anywhere and reside in the archives, unknown to many people;
a co-worker of mine works on a project called The Hubble Heritage in
which he, in his spare time, goes through the archives looking for
some of these awesome images for public publications; see also:

   http://heritage.stsci.edu/

the latest image is of Hickson Compact Group 87, a really awesome
collection of galaxies in one field - the current online image is
in B&W, but they will have a nigh-true color image for publication
soon enough (next month?)).

Anyway, just fyi. Since we were on the topic of astro pics  :)

Mk
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
"Fear holds us and binds us and keeps us from growing.	It kills a small
piece of us each day.  It holds us to what we know and keeps us from
doing
what's possible, and it is our worst enemy.  Fear doesn't announce
itself;
it's disguised and it's subtle.  It's choosing the safe course; most of
us
feel we have 'rational' reasons to avoid taking risks.	The brave man is
not
the one without fear but the one who does what he must despite being
afraid.
To succeed you must be willing to risk total failure."
		-Raymond Feist