Transcendence 1.0

After years of work, dozens of intermediate releases, and thousands of suggestions and ideas from the loyal community, Transcendence 1.0 is finally done! To everyone who has ever played the game, and especially to those who have patiently stuck with me for release after release, I offer my most heartfelt thanks. This truly could not have happened without you.

When I released Transcendence version 0.7 back in November 2003 I was confident that I could finish a 1.0 release in a couple of years at most. Even as recently as late 2008, I thought 1.0 would appear in early 2009. While I clearly haven't learned much about predicting my own development cycle, I have learned quite a lot in creating this game. In honor of this release I'd love to share some of what I've learned in hopes that it might be of use to some of you who are engaged in your own game projects.

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NGC 6946

The galaxies of Autumn are starting to appear.

The Astrotourist: NGC 6946

M16

You probably have not heard of the Eagle Nebula (or M16, as it is also known) but you've probably seen the famous Hubble photo of its massive towers of dust and gas: the Pillars of Creation.

I don't remember where I first saw that image, but I remember thinking how beautiful and amazing it looked. For the first time I could imagine this distant nebula as a real place.

Now I've finally captured that nebula with my own modest equipment. While it does not compare to Hubble's iconic image, it does connect me, in some small way, to that magnificent object.

The Astrotourist: M16

Clear Skies Are not Steady Skies

Just because the skies are clear doesn't mean that it will be a good night for astrophotography. Sometimes the skies are turbulent because of winds or temperature changes. On those nights the stars will twinkle ferociously and looking at the sky through a telescope will be like looking at the bottom of a clear lake on a windy day.

Astronomers call that "bad seeing" and it causes the light from distant stars to flicker and jump. Needless to say this distorts astronomical images, leaving them blurry and wavy.

The image on the left is a shot of the galaxy M101 under good seeing conditions. The one on the right shows the same galaxy, taken with the same equipment, on a night of poor seeing.

Astrophotography Targets for April

The most popular target in April is the Leo triplet, a grouping of three beautiful spirals: M65, M66, and NGC 3628, but there are other, less famous, galaxies this month that are well worth capturing.

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M82

Unravelling the nature of M82 took almost two centuries and required dozens of independent insights from many astronomers. But Johann Bode, the one who first spotted those two faint patches of light and wrote them down in his journal, is the only name commonly associated with M81 and M82. Those other astronomers? I confess I don't even know their names.

The Astrotourist: M82