iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 22h

Tiangong 1, the first Chinese space laboratory module and a prototype space station, was launched from Jiuquan #OTD in 2011. The module was visited by three Shenzhou spacecraft during its two-year operational lifetime.

Visualization of Shenzhou 9 spacecraft docking with Tiangong 1. Credit: CNSA

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The Spaceshipper 🚀 @thespaceshipper.com · 29/09/2026

PARISIANS! Come take a look. Take a closer look. There are 30 space sci-fi classics that will be screened over the next 20 days at La Cinémathèque!! Solaris, Silent Running, Moon, Alien, Marooned, Wall-E, 2001, 2010, Interstellar... You should enjoy it for me. Thank you for your attention.

youtube.com

Cinéma et espace, les indispensables - Bande-annonce

YouTube video by La Cinémathèque française

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Justinas Vitkus @justinasvitkus.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Another old painting of a habitable moon entering the shadow of its parent planet. #SciArt #spaceart #astronomy

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Justinas Vitkus @justinasvitkus.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Recent painting of a couple of exomoons. #SciArt #spaceart #astronomy #Exoplanets

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Justinas Vitkus @justinasvitkus.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

I've heard about planet WASP-76b showing hints of optical phenomenon called Glory. It looks like iridescent rings caused by liquid droplets in clouds. In this case the liquid droplets are made out of molten metal in the clouds of this hot Jupiter planet. #SciArt #spaceart #astronomy #Exoplanets

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voyager212 / Mac Rebisz @macspace.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Cassini spacecraft leaving Earth on top of Centaur upper stage. Back in October 2017 I made a series of Cassini themed artworks as a tribute to this amazing mission that gave us most breathtaking images of the other worlds. Painted in Procreate on iPad Pro.

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Simon Roy @simonroy.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

back in 2016 i made a mesoamerican riff on the oneill cylinder/bernal sphere in "HABITAT"- i love every mossy tube city in space

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Luna 19, a Soviet heavy lunar orbiter, was launched from Baikonur #OTD in 1971. The spacecraft studied lunar gravitational field, radiation environment, and made panoramic tv images.

Schematic diagram of the Luna 19 orbiter. Credit: NPO Lavochkin

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 28/09/2026

sketchfab.com/3d-models/gh... Free figure of Major Motoko Kusanagi. My adaptation, after i worked out how to extract the posed figure, not the neutral pose. UV textures upscaled x4 Hair colour more purple Mask removed I'm wondering how to render something with texture maps anime style...

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RJB / Mallacore 🇨🇦 @rjb-mallacore.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yeah it isn't as serious as the other anime versions but that is a bit refreshing. Also being more towards the manga I find it isn't competing with SAC which has a very high bar to match. Plus I love the retro art style.

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Lewis @siwelthelongboi.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

10s of thousands is probably under by an order of magnitude as well. I've been following SpaceX since about 2012, but I've entirely lost interest in it now, I stopped keeping track of Starship in about 2022. I didn't even know it was launching today

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Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 28/09/2026

The Hubble Cycle 34 science program is set and scheduled to begin November 1! Researchers around the world were awarded more than 2,700 prime orbits—and 31% will lead a Hubble observation for the first time: bit.ly/4xL4Ioj

Large text, Hubble Cycle 34 Approved Proposals, runs atop an image of space with the Hubble Space Telescope body at lower right.

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⭐ ᗰᗩᖇᛕ ᗩ. ǤᗩᖇᒪIᑕᛕ ⭐ @markgarlick.com · 28/09/2026

More fun with my orbital space hotel. Made in #blender. FUN only. Not a serious concept. The barrel-shaped pods are the living quarters. They're detachable in case of damage to the underlying ring. (Although, not sure how much help that will be!) #sciart #spaceart #scifi

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 27/09/2026

This one is about 1 year old now, (where did the time go!). Eagles from Space 1999 flying over a lunar backdrop I extracted from "2001" Lightwave 11.6

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Soapy @soapy2019.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

That's a sooper dooper cool coffee table.😃

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Mark Stewart @markstewart2001.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"The Dolphin I Used To Be…" Why we live on "Planet Ocean" rather than "Planet Earth" Read the full micro essay here: markdestewart.wixsite.com/the-metaphor... @seashepherdglobal.bsky.social @wwf.org.uk @whalesorg.bsky.social #conservation #ocean #Taji @greenpeaceuk.bsky.social @peta.org

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Jodrell Bank @jodrellbank.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Two months on from the announcement about Jodrell Bank Observatory's future funding, almost £50,000 has been raised thanks to your generosity. While discussions continue, no solution is yet in place. Help protect Jodrell Bank with a donation: donate.manchester.ac.uk/p/jodrellba…

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GrahamTG @grahamtg.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Still down the GiTS rabbit hole, watching the series on Amazon( recommended) and re-reading the book. "Thermoptics" rendered in #Lightwave3d and kludged in Photoshop. Does it work ? Not really but it was seriously fun to do and that's all that really matters these days 😊 #Scifi #ScifiArt

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David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Periodically on my spaceflight advance planning history blog No Shortage of Dreams I post links to related posts in chronological order. Here is one such post containing links to posts on proposed Apollo-derived post-Apollo space programs, 1965-69. spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2020/07/chro...

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 28/09/2026

These are what the clouds on Jupiter look up close. The small patches of white are cloud tops, soaring above the main, colourful cloud layer. Image from NASA's Juno spacecraft during its 38th close approach to Jupiter on 29 November 2021, processed by Kevin Gill (@kevinmgill.bsky.social)

A complex, swirling pattern of lighter and darker clouds. One large system, angled to the upper left in this scene, is a tawny brown colour and is elongate. Another, more circular storm system is at lower centre, and is a grey–greenish colour. The background swirls are various shades of grey to blue; small, white features dot the scene.

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Don Davis @ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Sunset of September 27, 2026 was an epic spectacle whose intensity and beauty were memorable. The cloud ceiling had a wide opening toward the West that admitted Sunlight which underwent progressive color changes as it briefly in turn illuminated layers of otherwise invisible cloud textures.

The Sunset of September 27th, 2026 was one of the greatest visions the sky has ever opened up and revealed to me. It was a sunset like few I can remember in many years. I knew early on what was likely as a heavy cloud ceiling was opening up far to the West with the underside textures in that part of the cloud ceiling catching the light early on from the distant sunlit clouds.

Vast connected cloud formations were in turn bathed in the last sunlight which progressively turned from a golden to orange to very red, in as pure a spectral filtering of Sunlight as I can recall seeing. One layer of cloud formations after another caught the light as the rays steadily angled upwards. The most distant yellow gold clouds were dazzling, like incandescent molten gold that defied photography. Lower layers were bathed in the reddest light that contrasted in hue with the more orange colors in the illuminated parts of the broken cloud ceiling above. Wide areas of the field of view were thus illuminated, appearing and fading one after the other like a parade of vast apparitions coming and going.

The last lit clouds gave up their lurid radiance reluctantly and with a very red final flourish. But the brilliance was still happening, withdrawing beyond the Western horizon as Earth's rotation carried us into the realm of the night. The Sunset lit clouds far away were still in itself illuminating clouds nearby. From their altitude the brilliance and colors along the horizon hundreds of miles away dominate the ambient lighting. This brought an extended 'echo' of the Sunset as every cloud surface facing West shone with that fading lurid glow, like a long slowly fading piano note after a great symphony.

I have seen many hundreds of Sunsets and sunrises, but something about this one struck me as almost like a kind of religious experience. Awestruck wonder and numbly bathing in the experience while periodically trying to preserve a visual record.

An all sky frame of the Sunset of September 27, 2026. Canon 6D with a fisheye lens. I now shoot most such sequences aimed straight up to show the entire horizon. Unfortunately due to a technical issue this became the first frame of the time lapse sequence, but I did get the extended 'afterglow'.

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Lewis @siwelthelongboi.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If you'd told me this was a model shot from the era I'd have believed you.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 27/09/2026

This one is about 1 year old now, (where did the time go!). Eagles from Space 1999 flying over a lunar backdrop I extracted from "2001" Lightwave 11.6

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 26/09/2026

#Lightwave3d Handy hint! After VPR, there's buffer options, & after that a single drop down arrow. Here you can turn on things like the Opengl overlay, & put a wireframe on the display, (in this example, a cel shaded final render) Ideal for seeing where stuff is, best of both worlds.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 26/09/2026

Another one for lightwavers: Here's a systematic workflow to tell where the noise is coming from. docs.lightwave3d.com/2025/removin... The article does NOT cover best practice in surfacing or lighting, but It will certainly help you narrow things down.

docs.lightwave3d.com

Removing Noise Workflow | LightWave

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GrahamTG @grahamtg.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I'm tired, it's been a long week, and I'm making silly mistakes. A colour tweaked version 2 before I head off to bed.

A small blue spider-legged robot (a Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell) crouches in a beige corridor beside a glowing pale-green panel, peering with large round eyes toward an open hatchway further down the hall. Yellow hazard stripes and a "LEVEL 01" sign mark the wall above. Text in the corner reads "Tachikoma".

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Virgopunk @virgopunk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I don't think O'Neil was ever more 'off the chain' than in that series. Agree with Chris W., it needs a black and white reprint.

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CiCi @cici6923.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Damn right! I still have this copy somewhere (don't ask what happened to the rest of the collection, its too harrowing).

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 26/09/2026

More work on the docking area of the BIS Avalon. I'm trying to make it work in Lightwave 2026, and get render times low enough to animate it. I'm getting there at the cost of turning off GI. vimeo.com/1230288862?s... Also a big still:

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Pedro Nunes @pedronunes.net · 26/09/2026

Anything can be improved by adding one more pipe.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 26/09/2026

I tried importing this Daz setting into Lightwave 2026, and seeing how it looked with new surfaces and lighting... Of course, if I'd had the new pipes tool at the time, I would never have needed to buy it! I'm really noticing how many SF scenes are dominated by pipes and droopy cables!

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GrahamTG @grahamtg.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

TachikomTachikoma from GITS, model by @nick-stevens.com Man, this one nearly beat me. Not the model (which is fun and easy to work with), but the damn wall panel, which simply wouldn't behave. #Lightwave3d #Scifi #ScifiArt

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 25/09/2026

I think the cel shaded Tachikoma is done. Download the files here: drive.google.com/file/d/1VoOt... It needs modern Lightwave, made in v2026. Elements can be animated or swapped out, wheels & feet versions included. I'm not asserting copyright, use it as you please. Show me what you do with it!

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The Spaceshipper 🚀 @thespaceshipper.com · 25/09/2026

2001: A space Odyssey (1968): Orion III Spaceplane & Space Station V, art by Robert T. McCall

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 24/09/2026

I'm finding some VERY nice noise textures in Lightwave. (These are RMan based, should be available in other software). A lot of noise looks like fractal noise curdled up in different ways. Gabor noise looks kind of mechanical, (lots of options), and warping reminds me of mildew patches of decay.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 24/09/2026

He seems nice... arstechnica.com/culture/2026... We have a trailer for Musk documentary Elon called a “hit piece” The trailer includes well-known incidents: Tesla & the fatalities linked to its driver-assistance systems, SpaceX, his purchase of Twitter, DOGE, and his 14 (possibly more) children.

arstechnica.com

We have a trailer for Musk documentary Elon called a "hit piece"

Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney focuses on the world's wealthiest man.

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Jodrell Bank @jodrellbank.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Celebrate the opening of The North Revisited, with photographers John Bulmer and Simon Hill, and BBC broadcaster Mark Radcliffe for a fascinating conversation about the people, places and stories that have shaped the North over the last 60 years ✨ 🎟️ 10 October ow.ly/LjQj50ZQ1iT 📸 Simon Hill

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 24/09/2026

I think I've just made the world's most annoying video meeting backdrop.

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The Spaceshipper 🚀 @thespaceshipper.com · 22/09/2026

All the spaceships from For All Mankind and Star City in one article! That's a lot of spaceships from an alternative universe, and concept art, and cool stuff. 🖖 This is just a (very long) overview, but expect to dive deep into the creation of these designs in the coming weeks and months.

patreon.com

All the spaceships from For All Mankind & Star City | The Spaceshipper

As a reminder, For All Mankind has been renewed for a sixth and final season, set to air in 2027. Filming wrapped up in August 2026. And we'

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 24/09/2026

Updated to version 2. Arms move, side guns pitch, eyes roll a bit, some fine details added / fixed.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 24/09/2026

Right! I tried pointing the camera at a Hosek-Wilkie light, and changed the light angle to make a sunset. All light settings at the defaults. Here's the Lightwave 2026 scene file, if you want to play. drive.google.com/file/d/1y0sb... It's not too bad - the limb darkening looks about right.

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Harry Stranger @spacefromspace.com · 24/09/2026

Taken 62 years ago today on September 24, 1964, a KH-7 spy satellite photograph showing early signs of the first soviet N-1 launch pad under construction at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The nearby rocket assembly building is visible under construction. spacefromspace.com/declassified...

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Daniel Pomarède @pomarede.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

NOIRLab image of the week Rubin and the Seven Sisters Credit: NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/H. Stockebrand noirlab.edu/public/image... 🔭🧪

The Pleiades glow in the southern sky above NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory from a viewpoint on Cerro Pachón in Chile. Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. Its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) began earlier this year on 29 June 2026.

This NOIRLab Image of the Week captures the seven bright stars of the sisterly asterism. The Pleiades are part of an open star cluster of more than 1000 confirmed members, known as Messier 45. This cluster is dominated by hot, blue luminous stars, of which up to seven can be seen with the naked eye under normal dark skies. There are reports of 11 members seen in the darkest skies with perfect naked-eye vision.

The Milky Way contains thousands of star clusters like the Pleiades, and Rubin Observatory will precisely measure them across six spectral bands. With unprecedented depth and homogeneous sky coverage, Rubin will make some of the first detailed observations of many star clusters in the southern hemisphere. Its observations will also uncover new star clusters and inform our understanding of the evolution of star clusters and of stars generally. During LSST, Rubin will measure approximately 17 billion stars.

Hernán Stockebrand, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador.
Credit image:
NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/H. Stockebrand
Credit text: NOIRLab

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Chris Weston @westonfront.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Meta employees don't like their privacy being violated.

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