JIM reviews IMAX film "HUBBLE 3D"

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Hubble 3D (in IMAX)

MY Rating: 9.5 of 10 stars (based on an advance screening of the 40-minute film).

STELLAR Views of Galactic Importance

On June 23, 2009 I visited Chicago’s MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & INDUSTRY where I attended (& wrote up a review about) the first public talk by astronaut JOHN GRUNSFELD about his historic space mission around 1 month prior to that, wherein he & others serviced the HUBBLE telescope orbiting around earth…

… As my review mentioned, that ground-breaking telescope was launched (many years late & way over budget) on April 24, 1990. But, it was quickly found to need REPAIRS because its main mirror had been ground incorrectly, & various missions had to be sent to space to try to FIX it…

… This new IMAX film tells the STORY of the repairs and how they allowed scientists to see fabulous new discoveries…

… For this advance screening, the theater was good enough to bring in people involved in the MAKING of the film:

… Donna Cox represented the Advanced Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois, & (if I recall correctly) Frank Summer, Chief Scientist of the Space Telescope Science Institute. They gathered together the RAW data provided by Hubble. They then went thru a very laborious process of “isolating” various elements (such as of the galaxies in the Ultra Deep region near Andromeda, the closest major galaxy to our Milky Way)…

… They then “cut-out” (isolated) some Hubble images, making “separate” enlargements of the 10,000 galaxy images in one area. They “cleaned-up” (enhanced) the images, used a Maya rendering program, & spent much time in “layering” & similar work to provide accurate 3-D images of the various areas, particularly of one beautiful & complex gaseous Orion nebula region…

… Using slides, the presenters explained how they went about their work concerning the Orion images, such as “condensing” a pyramid-shaped area in some (billion-pixel) photos. Altho the pyramid (cone) shaped area may look huge, it actually was like 100 times “longer” than could be seen via the “pyramid” diagram (— a sign of the vastness of space)…

… They pointed out the huge number of stars in various galaxies, and how they had to isolate layers of gas “separately” to accurately portray the swirling “depth” in the Orion nebula. Then, after a lot of ANALYSIS work, they labored to show the “surface” of the nebula so as to properly give the 3-D “FLOATING” effect & “valley” structure to what we were to finally see in the “completed” rendering…

… Robert Patterson & others had to use super-computers to process all the data properly & provide the “virtual choreography” of the completed work… They showed the Andromeda area as seen in the “distance” beyond our Milky Way galaxy. We could thus see the Trapezium region stars in Orion…

… They had to use 152 ”layers” to provide the proper “depth” to what we’d see. They built a special “virtual director pre-visualization environment”, which allowed us to have an accurate 3-D view of the Andromeda galaxy & other areas… We thus would be seeing a view that was BILLIONS of light years “across”…

… What they were pointing out is, altho it may look like certain images were done thru “CGI” (computer-generated imagery), that was NOT the case: altho they are refined images, all are from PHOTOS & other information gathered by the on-board HUBBLE devices. Thus, these are ACTUAL images from spaces (not in-effect “guesses” or fanciful conjectures)… That became especially meaningful one you SAW the fabulous, mind-expanding images presented on screen…

… The film itself (narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio) told the HISTORY of the Hubble telescope— how it took 10 years and 10,000 workers to build it, & how Space Shuttle missions 31, 61 & 125 had to go up to REPAIR & UPDATE the device thru the years…

… There are lengthy, fascinating scenes of the mission by Grunsfeld and his compatriots. As is pointed out in the film, some of their work in space was so exacting (in difficult conditions & cramped areas), it was “… like performing brain surgery with oven mitts…”

… The movie treats us to fantastic, extraordinary shots of the Helix nebula, the Mice galaxies, views past Sirius, and others. Thanks to the great 3-D rendering & all, you really feel you are traveling “THRU” the areas shown (at times in “zoomed”-in & -out versions)…

… Orion is around 1500 light years away from Earth… Certain clouds we see are approximately 90 TRILLION miles across… Certain winds in a galaxy we see, are estimated to be moving at around 5 MILLION miles per hour…

… It’s especially enjoyable & “grounding” to see the fine ATTITUDES of the people in the Space Shuttle missions. You get a “sense” of the individuals involved, by the way they interact— including kidding with each other, working to eat food that FLOATS around them in the anti-gravity conditions, etc…

… I like mind-expanding enterprises, and this fascinating documentary certainly fits that description!…