Orbital Propulsion (Gravity Assist)

The cover to this synth does not appear anywhere in it and is actually the work of the wonderful Jessica Blaine Gildersleeve. My snapshots are not worthy of the name photography next to her photos, but when thinking of which photo to use for the thumbnail her 'Delectable' came straight to mind.

Please enjoy the point cloud. You can reveal it by holding the Ctrl key or alternately by using the [P] key to toggle from photos plus points, to points only, photos only, and back again.

The title refers to the method of using the gravity of a planetary body such as a planet or moon to propel a spacecraft onward with it's intended trajectory. Imagine your camera as the satellite or spacecraft and any object in the scene as the planetary body whose gravity you will be taking advantage of (after a quick orbit) to propel yourself to the next object of interest. This seems to work extremely well and while it is not a very complex concept (take a circle of photos around everything you care about synthing and take photos on the way between them) very few people take advantage of it. Admittedly it does require quite a few more photos than the typical panorama type approach but the results are almost universally better in terms of fitting things into space correctly.