6dF Galaxy Survey: Beyond the Crux

Submitted to the ASTC (Association of Science and Technology Centers)
Fulldome Video Showcase by Spitz Inc.
ASTC screening at the University of Louisville's Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium
October 2006

Program (pdf)

MP4 download: 6df_2k.mp4

Also part of the Graphite (ACM Siggraph) Fulldome showreel, December 2007.

Quote: The 6dF Galaxy Survey has collected more than 120,000 red shifts over the southern sky over a 5 year period from 2001 to 2005. Its goal is to map our southern view of the local universe, and use the peculiar motions of one-tenth of the survey to measure galaxy mass. It covers more than eight times the sky area of the successful 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. This short (2.5 minutes) fulldome movie is a flight through the survey data with a galaxy image assigned at each location based upon the type of galaxy estimated by the survey.

Credits
Data: Anglo-Australian Observatory, 6dF data date: June 2006.
Visuals and animation: Paul Bourke
Music: Peter Morse, Glenn Rogers
Galaxy textures: Duncan Forbes, Space Telescope Science Institute, NASA, Hubble Deep Field

Specifications
Computing: Single Mac G5
Length: 2 min 20 sec
Frames: Fisheye projections, 3600x3600 pixels at 30 fps.
Rendering: Locally developed software tools for rendering, animation, stitching, compositing, effects.

Sample frames

Introductory flight into the Southern Hemisphere dataset.	Cumulative particle density rendering.
Transition from particles to galaxy texture representation.	Travel through and eventually out of the survey data.
Close pass by some galaxies.

Also rendered as a stereoscopic 3D movie, side-by-side stereo at 1024x768 per eye.