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Charles M. Falco's inexpensive, modified digital SLR camera has thrilled art conservators with what it can do at infrared wavelengths
UANews | By Lori Stiles, University Communications December 4, 2009

By modifying an ordinary SLR camera to see in infrared, UA physicist Charles Falco has opened the floodgates for art curators to examine what stories lie hidden beneath the visible façades of old paintings..

uanews.org/node/28902

A scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson has modified a commercial 8-megapixel digital SLR camera for infrared use, creating an inexpensive, portable new tool that even amateur photographers can use to quickly see through layers of paint in artwork to reveal drawings, defects or other features on the original canvas.

Conservators have been using infrared, or IR, cameras to examine and document artwork since the late 1960s. "But these cameras can cost upwards of $100,000, so the number of paintings studied by this technique has been extremely limited," said UA optical sciences and physics Professor Charles M. Falco.

'The technique is based on the fact that many common pigments are partially transparent to infrared light, making it possible to use appropriate infrared sensors to capture important information from surfaces that are covered by layers of paint," he said.

I saw the biggest hummingbird ever and I could not focus on him. "He's so shy" He is at least twice the size of the other hummers. A new crew came in this week, I guess the jet stream was just right. Still have not seen the bandit hummer. Also has a buck and doe walk through the draw before the dogs heard them. The wild stallion and his henchman is back, so the horses have to stayed corraled to keep from being bothered (bitten and herded). We had to give Gigi away, I miss her but she has a young lady to run with and lots of rodents to catch. She was really taking a toll on Chuune, top dog syndrome and I am no dog whisper, obviously...life is still grand and beautiful here at the Edge of the Rez!

I have feed the horses and puppy, after working on my project list because I could not sleep after the thunderstorm hit this very early dawn. The morninglight was so beautiful and the sweet air from the rain greeted us. I even got up before the birds or they slept late.

As Sung by Cat Stevens
lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day

I have been thinking that cloudy days really effect my attitude and what I do during the day. I sleep later and have a general low energy attitude.

I had some thoughts about national holidays, seems to me that the nature of human beings is to have cyclic rituals’ that create unity through a shared culture. When governments wanted to create an economic unity and dependence with its citizens, they had to create a unity of culture amongst the diverse population, so they created mothers day to replace any religious, spiritual or cultural rituals that celebrates fertility, creation, or rites of passage. Then with out saying the government had to honor the other half of the birth process by having fathers’ day. I do not know of any other indigenous culture that has a celebration just for fathers. I do know that there are rites of passage for males.

took some pictures but I had my macro lens on so I missed shots of an owl, porqipine,hawk, and turkey. Unfornunately my dogs tried to eat a baby porqpine....found the dead mom and the skull of either a coyote or a bob cat. The skull was missing the teeth and I have to eximine the skull shape to know which one it was. Rode Tookie, he is barn sour, and that gives me shin splints...tired