Earthlight by geirla
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Description
Here is a tribute and a response to some helpful comments.
First, Sir Arthur C. Clarke died today at age 90. He was pretty much the last of the 'Golden Age' authors I read as a kid. Somewhere in a box in the basement is a copy of Earthlight - a paperback from the fifties that I got second hand and read about thirty years ago. Picture doesn't have much to do with the story - other than illustrating the moon under Earthlight and starlight.
So, some responses. Yeah, the Earth in the last image. I got a bit lazy and grabbed one of my poorer Earth images - the water color was just plain off and I made no effort to do an atmosphere blur. Here I have a darker, more realistic image and I did do a bit of a haze around the world - though there's no way you can see it in this image - probably realistic from the moon.
And as for darkness in space, yes, there is no scattered light in a vacuum and shadows should be black, especially in the day. But space is not black. Earthlight or earthshine is certainly an example of what you would see on the moon if the Earth illuminated it. There's also starlight, and light from the other planets, if they're visible. I don't claim to be an expert on the human eye, but it seems to me that in a low light situation, the light of the stars would provide some minimal illumination. The earthshine may entirely overwhelm it, but for this image I let some in (there would also be light reflected off the brightened surface visible in the shadows - moonshine on the moon itself - from the earthshine, so to speak).
Anyway, for the purpose of this image, the headlights are 5x brighter than the earthshine and the earthshine 5x brighter than the star shine - I know that's too much, but Bryce has its limitations, and getting all that right required a couple of ranged lights (set at 5 and 1 - and you can't go lower than 1). There are some faint stars, especially on the left - I blocked off a big circle of my background plane to try to simulate the Earth overwhelming the light of stars close to it.
No story this time. All Bryce but the signature.
R.I.P. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, 16.12.1917 - 19.3.2008
Comments (7)
e-brink
I suppose you have to hear the news of people's death somewhere... "where were you!" as they say about the death's of President Kennedy and John Lennon... and you remember it forever. Well, I was a fan of Arthur C. Clarke and I heard the news of his death here... which is most appropriate! Great image. Thanks.
egehlin
Arthur C. Clarke was and always will be my favorite writer (science fiction or otherwise). His novel "Childhoods End" was the first book I read (that wasn't a comic book) when I was in 5th grade. That was in 1967. The following year my dad took me to see "2001 A Space Odyssey" at a small theater in Palatine, IL. The theater has long since been torn down but the images in the movie, inspired by Clarke's vision will stay with me always. Nicely done!!
grafikeer
Nicely done...I like the concept and overall image and the more realistic Earth in this image.I do wish there was a little more contrast in the terrain as I find it a little dark,but a great image otherwise!
kjer_99
Yes, that was a wonderful time to be introduced to science-fiction. My first couple of reads were Robert Heinlein, but Arthur C. Clarke was probably the second of the masters that I read. Some wonderful writers back then in the late forties and fifties. Like this Earth much better than the last one. A very fitting tribute to Clarke. He was one of the giants and will be missed.
wawadave
shame about clarke!! seems all my old favertit writers are dieing off like andere norton too plus many many more!!
cole4965
Really cool image!!!
Seaview123
Your picture is a fitting tribute to one of the masters of science fiction, and one of my favorite authors. He will be missed, but his name will live on in the many stories that he left for us and for future generations.