September | 2017 | Thomas A. Germer Photography

Old Faithful Inn

In August, I had the opportunity to travel to Yellowstone National Park to participate in a field study with a group of astronomers and astrobiologists. In the search for life in the Universe, scientists look for certain signatures that are considered to be general indications of life. One of those signatures is homochirality, the tendency for the molecules (amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, etc.) making up living organisms to have a specific handedness and for that specific handedness to be replicated throughout the planet. For example, our DNA spirals in a particular way, whether you are human, a tree, or a mushroom. On other planets, we cannot make the assumption that life is the same as that here on Earth, but we can assume that it consists of complex molecular structures that self-replicate their handedness. We were studying how circular polarization of light can indicate homochirality in microbial mats living in extreme environments at Yellowstone, in hopes that we can eventually use the method in a telescope or a planetary lander to sense life elsewhere.

In any case, our group of nine scientists took the opportunity to have dinner at the Old Faithful Inn. The Inn, originally opened in 1908, is a very large log cabin, one of the largest log buildings in the world. I had my panoramic gear with me on this trip, and what better place for doing 360° panoramas! I used 28 different shots, each with 3 exposures, to capture this location. The reason for taking so many shots was that there were many people walking about. As I like to say, I shoot them all and remove the bodies later.

Photos taken with a Canon 7D, Sigma 10 mm 1:2.8 DC Fisheye HSM, Panosaurus tripod head, 1/13 s, 1/50 s, 1/3 s, at f/4.0, ISO 800. Stitched with PTGui. High dynamic range processing with Photomatix Pro. Mapping onto polyhedron with personally written code.

Enjoy!

Old Faithful Inn (Rhombic Dodecahedron)