Camera Obscured

Camera Obscured, 2001. Mark Osterman. Courtesy of the Tilt Gallery. Gold-toned albumen print from collodion negative, 8 X 10 inches. 

Dunkel-heit, /. darkness obscurity. kam-mer, /. dark room camera obscura. dunkeln, v.t. i. darken deepen, sadden (colors),... 

God, I hate tourists. .. they ve made a mess of everything. Nothing is real any more. They obscure anything that was there. They stand around droves of them clicking with their blasted cameras. Most of them don t know what they are gawking at. (Bail, 1980 81)... 

Even when bright lights do not cause injury, injuries can increase after images that obscure portions of the visual field until the receptor cells have had a chance to recover. The afterimage from a flash of a camera or similar bright light is a common experience. The afterimage may lead to vision errors and to accidents. 

In general, we believe that this camera will be suited to searches for AGB stars and long period variables in obscured regions and other interesting parts of the sky. Its sensitivity can be increased by 2 mag by placing it at the Newtonian focus of the 1.9m refiector, which has a similar focal plane scale, should this be deemed worthwhile. 

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