date, which means
they have a “heads
up” and may prepare
their news stories but
may not make it public until the embargo
time and date arrive.
Gemini’s web site is
prepared and ready
to go live at the exact
moment the embargo lifts.
Figure 5.
The finished M101 ULX-1
artwork, showing a
horizontal format. The
black hole was reduced
in size and the inner disk
was brightened. Further
adjustments were made
to the density of the
stream’s gas, the material
blowing away from the
star, and the coloration of
the disk.
Credit: Gemini Observatory/
AURA; artwork by
Lynette Cook
When the magic moment arrives the article
and accompanying images can appear anywhere: on the web, in magazines, on the
evening news, and in the next morning’s
newspaper. The extent of the release’s reach
is dependent upon how exciting the news is
deemed to be and how much other breaking
news gets top billing. A politician’s indiscretions or movie star’s arrest might bump the
science off the front page, or off the evening
news entirely.
Figure 6.
The supermassive black
hole at the center of
Mrk 231 has a broad
outflow, shown here as
the fan-shaped wedge at
the top of the accretion
disk. A similar outflow
is probably present
under the disk as well
and is hinted at in this
illustration. A more
localized, narrower jet is
included as well.
Credit: Gemini
Observatory/AURA;
artwork by Lynette Cook.
http://www.gemini.edu/
node/11614
22
It’s All in the Timing
Though I sometimes regret that the illustration world (both scientific and commercial)
is largely computer-generated today, there
is no question that digital art allows for faster turnaround, quicker changes, and more
revisions than traditional media. And when
it comes to illustrations for press releases,
timing is everything. I have created art in
as little as 48 hours or, when the pace was
more relaxed, taken three weeks or more.
The norm is about a week and a half. Figures 6 and 7 show two complex pieces that
would have been nearly impossible to produce with traditional methods within the
time frame available, while also allowing for
communications among committee members and several changes at both rough and
high-resolution stages.
It is a romantic notion to suppose that such
projects are lined up in my studio at all times
and that I whip them out in quick succession.
In fact, they tend to come “out of the blue.”
One week I might be spending a little time
on Earth, so to speak, painting the Golden
Gate Bridge for a San Francisco Bay Area art
exhibit, and then an e-mail with an exclamation mark pops into my in-box with an extra
loud “Ping!” Next thing I know, I am Velcroing
myself to the computer to create an exoplanet or gamma-ray burst, the embargo date
looming large ahead of me.
Although each illustration is unique, some
stand out as extra special. A case in point
is the November 15, 2007, release about
hot dust surrounding a 100-million-yearold star in the Pleiades star cluster. The star
is very much like our Sun, though it is 45
Figure 7.
This rendering of W 33A showing the accretion
disk (yellow/orange), torus (dark ring around disk)
and bipolar outflow jets (blue) within the dense
clouds of its stellar nursery.
Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA; artwork by Lynette
Cook. http://www.gemini.edu/node/11394
GeminiFocus
April 2014