Shooting the Sun: Andrew McCarthy on Astrophotography, Icarus and the Artemis Moonde

If you've ever seen a photo of the Sun that stopped you in your tracks, there's a very good chance Andrew McCarthy took it. His image of our star is the first thing you see when you open the Shadowmap story, and it's the artwork behind Sunlight Matters itself. So this one is personal.

Andrew is the Arizona-based astrophotographer behind some of the most iconic space images of recent years, including Icarus, his jaw-dropping shot of a skydiver falling in front of the sun, named one of the photos of the year. In this episode, he tells the full story of how it was pulled off: an ultralight plane, a dry lake bed in the Arizona desert, months of maths, and one last-chance jump.

We also get into:

• How a cheap Dobsonian telescope and a blurry photo of the Orion Nebula changed his life
• Why space isn't grey, and the misconceptions that almost everyone (including Andrew) starts with
• What you can actually see with a pair of binoculars, from the Andromeda galaxy to the Large Magellanic Cloud
• How he photographs the sun in hydrogen alpha to reveal the chromosphere, convection cells the size of Texas, and plasma jets thousands of miles long
• The moon photo that went viral, ended up on the side of NASA's Artemis I rocket, and led to an extraordinary collaboration with Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, which showed the hidden colours of the moon, revealed for the first time from photos taken in lunar orbit, and the print release that raised $40,000 for cancer research at MD Anderson
• Why watching a Starship launch hits you like a ton of bricks (literally), and his advice for anyone who wants to see a rocket launch for themselves
• His plans for the 2026 total solar eclipse over Iceland and Spain, which he intends to shoot from a boat
• And a few tips for my own 4 am sunrise photography habit

Andrew's mission is simple: to show you the universe as if you had superhuman vision, and to inspire the next generation of astronauts, engineers and stargazers. Job done, frankly.

Follow Andrew

• Instagram: @cosmic_background
• Website: cosmicbackground.io
• X: @AJamesMcCarthy

Sunlight Matters is a podcast exploring the role of the Sun in human health, architecture, cities, and everyday life.

Through conversations with scientists, architects, and technologists, the series examines how natural light shapes our bodies, our buildings, and the way we live indoors.

Hosted by Dave Wallace, Sunlight Matters asks a simple but overlooked question: what happens when we disconnect from the Sun?

Because sunlight isn’t optional. It matters.

Please do not forget to Like and Subscribe. 

Transcript

Andrew McCarthy (00:00)
I realized I was limiting my audience to only the people that understood that information, which was just other astrophotographers. And I didn't want to

share my work with other astrophotographers because they knew this stuff existed. They knew it was accessible. I wanted to share my work with the layperson that had no clue. I had to find a way to convey the information that didn't make it seem like they were reading a science textbook. I wanted them to just admire the spectacle of it and then get just a little bit of information.

Dave (00:28)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew McCarthy (00:28)
And then that opens the door for them to do their own research and then hopefully discover the wonderful world of astrophotography and just how how accessible this stuff really is for to those that are willing to put in the work.

So I was basically right there seeing this three hundred and fifty foot tall rocket, it like a skyscraper. It's huge. And then you the the next day I'm seeing it defy gravity and go into space. I'm just like, how is this possible? And you know, fifteen seconds after the engines ignite, 'cause that where I was  you know, five miles away, suddenly it hits me. like a ton of bricks in the chest.

Dave (00:52)
Mmm.

Andrew McCarthy (01:01)
I'm feeling the sound waves flow through my body. And it just like, man, that bug hit me so hard. now I've been going to basically every launch I can. it's a very delightful photography challenge.

but I feel like I'm truly documenting the

Dave (01:33)
we're in the middle of the hottest June ever in the UK. So I am sweltering. So if I break out into a sweat, you'll just have to forgive me, to be honest with you.

Andrew McCarthy (01:43)
yeah, no problem. I I mean I live in

the the desert in Arizona, which may as well be the surface of the sun.

Dave (01:49)
Amazing, amazing, Well, ⁓ so I love your cat as well. So is it Gregsy?

Andrew McCarthy (01:53)
Bugging my cat who's sitting here by the window.

Yeah, yeah. Little Gregory here. Sa say hi, Gregory. ⁓ there you go.

Dave (02:05)
Hey

Gregory, how are you? I would go and get my cat Cola who's outside somewhere but I don't think she'd appreciate the lift. Gregory is good because we had a cat almost exactly the same.

Andrew McCarthy (02:16)
Yeah.

He's a good cat.

Dave (02:23)
He's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

Andrew McCarthy (02:27)
Go back to bird watching, little buddy. Thank you for that. He likes making little cameos.

Dave (02:34)
That's fantastic. Well, I'll probably keep that in the recording if that's all right. Fantastic. Well, listen, Andrew, thank you so much for joining. just feel really honoured, actually, that you'd take time out of your busy schedule to talk to us. ⁓ I mean, this is very personal for me because I joined this company, Shadowmap, and they showed me this presentation and the first slide, they had

Andrew McCarthy (02:38)
Yeah, let's go ahead.

Dave (03:05)
picture of the sun and I was like my god where did that come from it is just the most perfect thing that I think I've ever seen and ⁓ I then was told it was a photograph that you took so I've then been following you ever since and you know just think everything you do is out of this world literally so but anyway

There may be one or two people out there who don't know who you are. ⁓ So I just wonder if you could start by introducing yourself and just maybe talk about how and why you got into photography and then we can take it from there.

Andrew McCarthy (03:48)
Sure. ⁓ well I'm I'm Andrew. I'm based out of Arizona. I consider myself ⁓ an astrophotographer because I mainly just take pictures of what's beyond Earth's atmosphere. ⁓ you know, although I have dabbled in rockets recently, as as part of that, just because I feel like there's something quite significant about our b ability to reach out and touch the sky. ⁓

But I I I got into this really on a whim. I I'm a pretty normal guy, you know, I don't have this this specialized background or anything. You know, I I w I worked in retail for years and then then worked selling software for a little while and then bought my first telescope. ⁓ and it absolutely just consumed me. I I spent every night in my backyard long hours, ⁓ you know, trying to

figure out what I was looking at and how to take photos of it so I can share with the world because I I felt like it was such a profound experience just being able to see the planets from my backyard. And I think a lot of people don't realize just quite how accessible space is using ⁓ using modern optical technology and camera technology. I had I I I always considered myself a you know pretty, you know, smart guy when it comes to space. I quickly realized I knew nothing and I I knew

Not only did I just know nothing, but like what I did know was wrong. Like I I thought for sure that there were a lot of misconceptions I have. One, I thought that we got photos of nebulas and galaxies because we would send probes to go visit those things. Which is like hilariously wrong. ⁓ I

Dave (05:22)
Okay.

Andrew McCarthy (05:27)
I know, ⁓ I didn't realize that somebody from their backyard could take a photo of these things. I thought you had to be in space. I thought it took NASA billions of dollars to get photos of galaxies and nebulas. And I just couldn't be more wrong. Y most modern smartphones can easily take a photo of the Andromeda galaxy, for example. ⁓ because these things are angularly large enough, ⁓ you don't need to go physically visit them, like you would, say, an exoplanet, to get a good photo.

you can actually take photos of them and see details on them from your backyard, which is what I what I started doing. And you know the the I remember the first time I took a photo of a nebula, I I used a very old camera. It was a it was like one of the first Canon digital cameras. It was a digital rebel. It was like a little five megapixel camera. And I and I stuck it over like very awkwardly held it over the IP socket.

for my Dobsonian telescope that I had bought on a web and took a photo of the Orion Nebula and it was out of focus. It was had motion blur and jitter because I like awkwardly holding it. And it was very noisy. But I was able to see color and that raw exposure. It was blues and reds and ⁓ and that shattered another misconception I had. I thought space was grey and colorless and scientists added color to the photos to make them prettier.

I was completely wrong about that too. ⁓ although it's not my fault. Everybody had that misconception because I think it's one of the one of the things that's more poorly explained and tends to be over explained ⁓ by a lot of science communicators. So, you know, as I'm exploring these misconceptions and taking these really crude photos, ⁓ I'm just I'm just realizing it's like it's like if there's, you know, other people like me that think they know a lot about space but really really know nothing, then

there's this opportunity to share what I'm discovering with them. ⁓ so I started posting to social media and inviting people to come along this ride with me as I explored the universe from my backyard. ⁓ and I think that just empathized with a lot of people because they were their minds were blown too. And you know, looking back, you know, I'm I my my photos that I was taking when I first got started were not very good. You know, when I compare them to what I'm getting now, I'm like, ⁓ I can't believe I put this out in the real in the world and people actually liked it. ⁓

But i it's like when you're coming from a place of not a lot of knowledge, it's it's kind of amazing to know that you're able to actually explore these ⁓ these faraway places, sometimes millions of light years away, ⁓ just using ⁓ you know, a fairly modern digital camera and a telescope. so that was what consumed me and it's kind of taken me to where I am today.

Dave (08:08)
Amazing. I mean, I absolutely love the story. I mean, I've got a pair of binoculars here, which I bought so I can look at the moon because I had a telescope and I found it too, you know, it just moved around too much. So I've got this nice pair of binoculars and I go out when the moon's out and have a very good look. I mean, as you say, just sort of, I guess, peeling away the kind of

I don't know, the night and sort of being able to sort of see some of these things, it just is actually magic, isn't it? So, but.

Andrew McCarthy (08:42)
Sure is. And those

but those binoculars you have in ⁓ behind you, one, they probably cost less than a telescope. ⁓ and they're well I don't know what you don't mean, you don't have to share that. But but you're able to see galaxies and nebulas with those binoculars. And I I think a lot of people don't realize that.

Dave (08:57)
Well, that's interesting because

I mean, I've just been I've used them for the moon. I haven't thought to go beyond that. So based on this conversation, as soon as we get a nice clear night, I shall be out there with I think. I mean, just a sort basic question. If you want to see the galaxies, do you have to wait for a moonless night or, you know?

Andrew McCarthy (09:20)
Yeah.

I would I read r I would recommend it, yeah. ⁓ at least wait until it's a waning phase, ⁓ because then it'll be rising later than in the early evening you can start to see some things. ⁓ right now, ⁓ the galactic core is rising roughly when the sun goes down. So ⁓ if you wanted it to ⁓ it w have the best viewing conditions, you would want to wait until the galactic core is at zenith, which means

Dave (09:24)
That's it.

Andrew McCarthy (09:48)
Or as close to the zenith as it gets. The galactic core is actually going to be a little low on the horizon because you're at a higher latitude. but but you'll want to wait until later in the evening. So put maybe in the wee hours in the morning would be the best viewing. So you'll wanna wait until the moon is maybe at a waning crescent. And then you can start looking through ⁓ the galaxy and you can see star clusters, you can see some nebulas. I think you might be too far north to get a l good look at the Lagoon Nebula, but the Lagoon Nebula looks particularly good in binoculars.

Dave (09:58)
Okay.

Andrew McCarthy (10:17)
But we also have Andromeda right now too. Andromeda will look very good to you because of your latitude. And you can look at ⁓ you can actually see the dust lanes in Andromeda with those binoculars if your skies are dark enough. So I'd strongly recommend trying to find ⁓ trying to find it in the sky. 'Cause once you find it it is just breathtaking. ⁓ and it you know, you you can and the longer you look, the more you can start to pick out details. You'll start to

Dave (10:29)
suspect.

Okay.

Andrew McCarthy (10:43)
You see at first you see the core is just this fuzzy smear of light and then the longer you look you go, there's a little bit of separation there in the core and now I can start to see some of the outer spiral arms of it. And it's they're very faint, but you can train your eyes to start to pick out more and more details as you look.

Dave (11:00)
Fantastic. Fantastic. No, I definitely, definitely be on that. And then the other thing just, you know, again, from a sort of personal point of view, I happened to be heading off to Fiji later on in the year and I got one of your prints, the one that you took in Fiji, I think last year. yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, oh.

Andrew McCarthy (11:19)
The large Magellanic Cloud. That's one of my favorite photos I've ever gotten.

Dave (11:24)
I think you posted a picture of you sat on a beach going I think it was like guess where I am or something like that and you then revealed that you were in Fiji and I was like oh I'm off to Fiji next year I'll take the binoculars with me and let's see what we can see.

Andrew McCarthy (11:41)
get great. Yeah, the Large Magellanic Cloud just it it looks great even to your eyes. You can see you can see it with your eyes. it's a gal it's a you know, for those that don't know, it's a dwarf galaxy that's orbiting around. And the Milky Way has consumed a lot of this galaxy, but it's kind of added this chaos to the structure of of the ⁓ the the galaxy and what remains of it. So you're it's stripped away a lot of it, but you can see the star forming regions very, very clearly.

⁓ and that's what I captured in that photo that you have is you can see all these star forming regions as nebulae. ⁓ scattered all throughout. But yeah, it's just an incredible sight to witness, with your naked eyes even. And then with binoculars of course you can see even more. And then ⁓ that that by the way, that photo I took, I didn't even use a telescope for that. I used a one thirty five millimeter camera lens. Yeah. No telescope. Yep. It's so large in the sky that if you're using a telescope, you're not even going to be able to fit the entire galaxy in the field of view. So

Dave (12:14)
Yeah.

No. No. Really? Wow.

Andrew McCarthy (12:38)
⁓ even a even a very short focal length telescope. I brought a three hundred and fifty millimeter telescope with me on that trip and ended up not even using it. I just used a one thirty five millimeter camera lens.

Dave (12:47)
Wow, okay. Listen, that's fantastic. Well, I mean, and it's one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about, and you've kind of mentioned it already, is your generosity in terms of telling people what you're up to and then sort of demystifying how you kind of got there. I ⁓ really love how you kind of just sort of take us all on the journey in terms of some of these amazing shots that you've got.

And, you know, I mean, what was the sort of, I mean, why did you do that? Because I think a lot of photographers just sort of probably come up with a picture and they don't kind of go through the process of how they got it. You know, I was just fascinated as to why you decided that sharing was important.

Andrew McCarthy (13:34)
I you know, as I kinda ⁓ mentioned earlier, the fact that I considered myself a space nerd that consumed a lot of information about space, but didn't know a lot of this. Like it it I it showed me how much of an impact one person could have simply by sharing that information with the world. And ⁓ and you know, what's what's interesting about you saying that is compared to a lot of my astrophotographer peers, I actually don't share a lot. ⁓ you know, they share, you know, v the very, very much like

Dave (13:59)
Right.

Andrew McCarthy (14:04)
nitty gritty details, the nuts and bolts of it. The you know, it's what exposure times they used, how many exposures they used, what types of filters they used, the all the settings that they used, the types of processing they used. and I at first I was doing that too. But then what I realized would happen was I was limiting my audience to only the people that understood that information, which was just other astrophotographers. And I didn't want to

share my work with other astrophotographers because they knew this stuff existed. They knew it was accessible. I wanted to share my work with the layperson that had no clue. So in order to do that, I had to find a way to convey the information that didn't make it seem like they were reading a science textbook. I wanted them to just admire the spectacle of it and then get just a little bit of information. A l just enough to let them know that, hey this is possible. I did this using very basic equipment that anybody can buy.

Dave (14:54)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew McCarthy (15:03)
And then that opens the door for them to do their own research and then hopefully discover the wonderful world of astrophotography and just how how accessible this stuff really is for to those that are willing to put in the work.

Dave (15:15)
Well, mean, congratulations, because I think you totally nailed it. Because, you know, you're right. I mean, if you started going to exposures and things like that, I think you'd lose most people. ⁓ But just the way you do it, it just sort of feels like we can be part of that journey. I mean, talking about iconic photographs, I mean, I want to talk about a few of them, but let's start with the one of the sun, because...

Andrew McCarthy (15:19)
Well thanks.

Dave (15:44)
I mean, I can't look at that without getting goosebumps, to be honest with you. ⁓ you know, and for me, it's become a really important picture and we use it actually on the the assets for Sunlight Matters. So the podcast. So you'll see yourself emblazoned on top of the sun ⁓ with credits, obviously, to you at the end. But I

I just can't, as I say, I can't look at it without getting goosebumps. you know, I was going through this process where, you know, and I won't go into the details. I've talked about this before on other podcasts, but I just became obsessed by the sun. And part of the reason is I used to live in Fiji when I was young and then I've ended up in the UK and I get terribly bad.

⁓ seasonal affective disorder and I think my body remembers the sun so I was really going through and I just saw the photograph and I was like wow this just it's just perfect to be honest with you it isn't a photograph where you just went out and took a picture of the Sun is it you know there was a lot more that went into that

Andrew McCarthy (16:58)
I'm sure, yeah, I I don't know exactly which photo you're referring to, 'cause I of course take a lot of photos of the sun. but I can describe my process at a high level of what I what I do that I think that's different than most people that attempt to shoot the f the sun for the first time. ⁓

Dave (17:13)
Yeah, yeah,

Andrew McCarthy (17:14)
Well, y you of course can buy a solar filter for most cameras. You can just go out and buy They're not very expensive. ⁓ they're they're usually like a mylar type material. They look silver. You put over the objective end of your camera lens. And when you go to take a picture, the sun's light is reduced to now you can resolve instead of this, you know, bright thing that washes out everything in your photo, to a crisp, well defined disk in the sky. And if you look closely on that disc, you can usually see a little

darker flex across it and those would be the sunspots, assuming you're capturing it when sunspots are visible. And then if you take capture it with a really, really, really long focal length, like beyond 4,000 millimeters, ⁓ you'll start to see details within the texture where you can resolve individual convection cells. And what you're looking at here when you use one of those types of filters is the solar photosphere.

The photosphere is the closest thing to a surface that the sun has. ⁓ it's almost like looking at the top of a boiling pot of water where you're seeing the roiling action of the plasma as it bubbles up to the surface of the sun, cools, and then slips through these almost crack looking things. And each little convection cell is like the size of Texas. so sorry for using a r a reference here in America. I ⁓ I'm I don't I don't know enough about the countries in Europe to like

Dave (18:36)
No,

no, but-

Andrew McCarthy (18:37)
make a more appropriate European re reference. But ⁓ but they're ro they're they're they're very, very large. ⁓ you know, a thousand miles across. And ⁓ and ⁓ but here's the challenge of shooting the photosphere. There's a lot more that's going on the sun that actually is even more dynamic than this ⁓ in the solar chromosphere. But the chromosphere is a thousand times fainter than the photosphere. So when you use one of these filters

When you block out all that extra light to resolve the photosphere, your the chromosphere becomes essentially invisible. the chromosphere is the first atmospheric layer around the sun. ⁓ so not the corona, which is what you see during eclipses, but ⁓ if you happen to catch an eclipse and sometimes you see these little pink bits floating off the size or the side of the sun, right on the limb, those are actually parts of the chromosphere called prominences. but they're too faint to see through a f

Through solar filter. So, what I do is I use a telescope that's been modified to the hydrogen alpha band. Since the sun is mostly hydrogen, and these gases coming off the sun are superheated to incandescence, they're ionized into the hydrogen alpha band pass. so they emit a very specific frequency of red light. So by isolating just that light and taming a little bit of that brightness from the photosphere.

you're able to actually isolate those atmospheric gases. ⁓ and that's why my photos look like a burning ball of fire and not a simple flat disk. ⁓ And that's something that it takes a lot more ⁓ a lot more challenge to get right. But once you get it right, it is magnificent. And these ⁓ these features also appear to move in time lapses. So over the course of hours you'll see the features shift and change

⁓ is the this plasma is guided by the powerful magnetic field of the sun and then drawn back by its powerful gravity. So you can see a lot of interesting behavior happening on the sun ⁓ just using ⁓ this technique. so I'm sure the photo that you're referring to probably uses something like that.

Dave (20:44)
Absolutely. I mean, you can see a lot of detail in it. And, know, I think there's a few solar flares, but you can definitely see spots and, you know, the features exactly as you you describe them. I mean, I'm interested as to why you decided to to go so deep on the sun, because, you know, I would guess if you're sort of going out and

taking photographs of galaxies and things like that. You know, lot of astrophysicists would be kind of astrophotographers would be focused on what's going on at night. you know, what was the sort of trigger for you to say, no, actually, I'm going to really go deep on the sun?

Andrew McCarthy (21:33)
i i it all fascinates me. And if you like the stars, you should like our sun too, because it's seeing one of the stars in your photos in an extreme high definition. 'cause every other star, you know, follows a similar, you know, structure of our own star, just, you know, maybe in a different life cycle, different scale, but ⁓ but they're all smaller than a pixel and even the biggest telescopes. So you can't resolve any kind of details. Now we have one that's a

Half a degree wide in our  sky, that's plenty large enough to be able to resolve details on it. ⁓ even though those details are huge, you know, we'll talk about thousand mile wide convection cells, the entire sun is eight hundred thousand miles wide. It's huge. but you know, and those jets of plasma that I'm that I'm shooting that look like little furry blades of gla grass on the sun, they're thousands of miles long. so absolutely just massive, massive features. ⁓ but because the sun is just so

relatively close I'm able to resolve them. and ⁓ y you know that to me is just like it's it's a very it was a very obvious thing to be interested in ⁓ because I was, you know, so interested in just shooting everything in the sky. ⁓ and, you know, I'm I'm not just shooting I'm not just shooting the stars and the galaxies and the planets and the sun. I mean I'm shooting rockets too because that's, you know, our way of accessing these things. ⁓

Yeah, it so it all just fascinates me and it's all a part of the big l larger picture of where we are in the cosmos.

David James Vaughan Wallace (23:07)


Dave (23:29)
Yeah, think I mean, I don't know whether you talk about connecting people with the universe, you know, and I think you do such a good job of that. so I wanted to ask about the Icarus picture, because, you know, again, that that's, you know, very iconic. I think it's gone international geographic. ⁓ They they've sort of featured that as one of the photos of last year.

What was your thinking around that?

Andrew McCarthy (24:03)
I had had ⁓ I'd gone skydiving with a friend and we'd always been trying to work out maybe something that we could collaborate together. You know, he was a he ⁓ we we both fly little planes. ⁓ and we went skydiving together. So we're like, Well what if we get a shot of like the like one of us in a plane in front of the sun and you know, and I was kinda like, Well, you know, I kinda get those every so often anyway. Like I wanna like let's see if we can get something even crazier than that and we had just gone skydiving, we're like, Wait a second

What what if we s like and I was like, I don't think anybody's ever done that. Nobody had ever gotten a photo of a skydiver in front of the sun. Definitely not like the way I do it. You know, like like the crazy details in the solar chromosphere. I was like and I was like, Well, is this even possible? Because y in order to skydive you need a minimum altitude, you know, you you in order to be able to do it safely. and and if you're too high

then you're gonna be looking up underneath and it'd be very hard to like time it with the sun. So I was like I was like, I'm not sure if it's even possible. So let's work out the math. And we figured out that when the sun was between like twenty and thirty degrees high, it became possible to get a shot if you use an ultralight plane. So we found somebody that had an ultralight tandem plane. it's not really a plane. It's just like a it almost looks like a go-kart with a fan on the back.

Dave (25:27)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah, I seen them.

Andrew McCarthy (25:28)
⁓ yeah, you know the

ones that you talk about? Yeah, and they have like a parachute. ⁓ so yeah, he used one of those and he he had a we found a pilot that was willing to take him up and he ⁓ got to the right altitude and then I was watching him. I had a number of cameras set up and I was watching him and we were on a three way call with him, the pilot, ⁓ and me. And I'd basically be like, Okay, I see you and they they knew when they were s roughly lined up because the sun would start reflecting off all my telescope lenses.

So my spot in the desert, we would like we chose this dry lake bed in the middle of the Arizona Desert, because it was just enough room to do whatever we wanted. ⁓ and he would be able to see me because he was several miles away, he'd be able to see me because all of a sudden those those telescopes would light up as they reflected the sun right back to him, because he was lined basically roughly perfectly. And then from there I would watch for the silhouette of the parachute on my cameras. And once they started to see it, I'd be like, Okay.

You need to come a little east, okay, now you need to go a little west and you know, try to li line up a little bit. ⁓ and then, you know, usually wasn't lined up 'cause I was at a very long focal length. So I was only seeing like a very small piece of the sun. ⁓ you know, if the sun if you know, if the sun was the size of a dinner plate, I was the size of the mashed potatoes. That was what I was looking at. So I was I I

Dave (26:35)
Wow.

Andrew McCarthy (26:44)
As he's transiting through the sun, I would say, okay, we need to do another go-around. Do another go-around. Do another go-around. That whole time the sun's climbing in the sky, 'cause, you know, we're we're getting out of our window. And finally, it was actually the last go-around. He nailed that field of view perfectly. So that was when I gave the order. Okay, three, two, one, go. And he jumped. We got the shot. And thankfully he survived. He d he was able to real Polish parachute. And it was

Dave (27:10)
Pew.

Andrew McCarthy (27:12)
Yeah, it it was just it and it worked out. It was a iconic moment. I still can't believe we pulled it off. ⁓ every time I talk about that shot I'm like, There's no way that was me. That must have been some other guy. But no, yeah, we we we got it and we pulled it off. Kept shit with a number of instruments simultaneously, ⁓ and the resulting shot was just it was fantastic. It exceeded my expectations.

Dave (27:33)
I mean it is unbelievable. again, I love, I think you had a video of you kind of going, yes, you know, like, and I...

Andrew McCarthy (27:42)
Yeah. Yeah, I mean

the the moment it happened I just put my hands on my face and was just like almost in shock at what I had just seen on my screen. 'Cause it's weird. I'm you know, I I spend all these all these years basically shooting the sun and I you know, I'm so used to seeing it a certain way, and then suddenly I'm seeing a photo of the sun with a person. A person that I know falling in front of it. And ⁓ so I mean it was just like

It was so surreal to see play out in real time and I had the emotions because we had been talking about it and planning this for like months. And that moment of the jump was just like a split second and you know a lot could have gone wrong. ⁓ and you know, luckily we you know, we did everything right. ⁓ you know, Gabriel helped me with most of the calculations because it was his safety on the line. ⁓ so the calculations were accurate and we were able to ultimately get the shot. So yeah, it worked out great and man, I couldn't be happier.

And we're already trying to figure out a way to top it. So hopefully we got something even cooler coming.

Dave (28:44)
Oh well, can't wait to see. I mean, because, you know, I think before you'd done that shot, you'd managed to get the rocket in front of the sun as well. you know, no just putting planes or, you know, the, you know, I don't know, other things in front of the sun. That was just awesome as well. yeah, so I can't wait for what comes next, to be honest with you.

Andrew McCarthy (29:12)
Thank you.

Dave (29:12)
So

⁓ yeah, I mean, how did you feel when you then sort of realised that this is it was going to make because it was in Time magazine's photos of the year as well. I think.

Andrew McCarthy (29:25)
⁓

I don't know about that. It got a lot of press, so you know, it went it went pretty viral worldwide when when it came out. I don't I don't know about time, but definitely like BBC ran an article about it, CNN ran an article about it. It was on like it was on live with Mark and Kelly, ⁓ which is like, you know, pretty popular morning show here. and you know, it was just all these all these places were covering it. So I I subscribe to Google Alerts for my name because I just you know, I wanna know what people are saying and

Dave (29:29)
Yeah.

Okay.

Andrew McCarthy (29:55)
And ⁓ they just like blew up like that next day. It was like it was like hundreds of mentions in like all these different articles and ⁓ yeah, it was pretty cool.

Dave (29:58)
What?

Fantastic, fantastic. I mean, it's sort of like, I mean, I've got a bunch of kids and every now and then our worlds collide. And I think that was a great example where suddenly they were showing me this picture going, isn't this incredible? I was like, yeah, no, I think so. When I mentioned that I was talking to the photographer who took it, they were pretty stoked, to be honest with you.

Andrew McCarthy (30:27)
Yeah, l I love

it. Like inspiring the next generation of like astrophysicists and aerospace engineers. Like that's what I wanna do. Like like I like I would love it if the p first person to walk on Mars like got inspired by seeing one of my photos.

Dave (30:41)
Well, I think there's a big possibility. I mean, you've just launched those incredible photos of the moon as well. you, I mean, again, that's an extraordinary story. So you got one of the people on the Artemis, the astronauts on the Artemis program to actually take some photos for you, didn't you?

Andrew McCarthy (31:01)
Yeah, so ⁓ so Reed Wiseman, great, great guy, ⁓ perfect choice for Commander of the Artemis two mission. ⁓ he ⁓ he reached out to me about something else on X. ⁓ you know, he he got one of my prints and was basically just like, Hey, print looks great, you know, thanks so much. Here it is on my wall. and ⁓ you know, that opened up a dialogue and then, you know, I think it was like maybe mid January, it was a few weeks after he'd he'd reached out to me. I

I I started thinking about it. I like, yo, there's an incredible opportunity here with the Artemis II mission. Now, the Artemis I mission was pretty cool. I think everybody agreed, like, it was cool seeing the photos of the moon and the Earth. But honestly, the Moon is boring. When you approach the photos from a photojournalism standpoint. The from a f now photo journalism means you basically just take the photo as is. You're not editing anything, you're applying

⁓ very organic color balancing settings to it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But there is a lot on the moon that is hidden, namely the color. the color of the moon is there. However, it is very, very washed out. The moon is a very uniform gray because the entire thing is pen peppered with micrometeorites, ⁓ ejecta from larger impacts, ⁓ and you know, it's just not super colorful to begin with. You know, there's ⁓ the moon is actually rusting.

You know, it's it's mostly made of iron and that iron is interacting with trace trace molecules from our own atmosphere. Our atmospheric influence actually goes way beyond the moon. So oxygen molecules will strike the moon and oxidize with the regolith, which turns it ⁓ like a that orange rusty brown color. ⁓ but it's still mostly gray to your eyes. ⁓ there are areas we can see the color

Dave (32:41)
Wow.

Andrew McCarthy (32:48)
visually and in fact the Artemis astronauts as they approached the moon started to see some of that color more visually as they got closer and it was easier for their eyes to adapt the dynamic range of the scene. So like for example the Ar Aristartis Plateau, they were able to call out some like very clear colors they were saying. And that area is very hyper saturated on the moon. So I thought up to myself, I was like, well what if we get them to shoot the photos in a way that allows for everybody to see these vivid colors on the moon.

and you know it's it's not that complicated. you know, he was able to I I I knew he'd be able to incorporate it into whatever he was doing already, because they're already going to be taking photos of the moon. It's just a matter of taking burst photos within a certain amount of time. So parallax doesn't ruin them. That allows me to stack them, bring up the signal to noise ratio, and now those colors start to appear. So I I asked Reed, I said, Hey, would you like to maybe take some photos like the one you have?

around your mission to the moon, you know, assuming you're not already. ⁓ and he said, Yeah, I mean the humblest guy ever for a guy that's picked to go around the moon. He'll already taken years of photography classes and the guy says, Yeah, teach me. And I'm like, I gotta teach a Artemis astronaut something. Like what? You know, that's I'm just this guy. Like I don't But no, Reed was super humble about it. I was basically like, Yeah, like you know, should what to do? And I basically said, All right, this is what a how I would approach it.

if I was in that spacecraft taking the photos. And he took that back up to ⁓ Artemis, you know, they had a dedicated photography team. He basically took it to them and said, Hey, you know, can we work this in? And they came up with an actual plan for it. ⁓ you know, like how they bracketed their shots, the types of bursts you would take. ⁓ and you can actually see the Raws. you know, they they release like a huge, huge like ba it just everything from their memory cards is public now. It's like all on ⁓

the various archive sites and ⁓ NASA has this official one you just scan through this the tens of thousands of photos. ⁓ and you'll notice in those photos you'll and I heard people complaining about this on the internet, you know, people were saying, I don't understand why there's so many duplicates. There's like hundreds of photos of the same part of the moon. I'm like, that was very specifically because of this this project. And ⁓ as I'm and ⁓ you know as I'm going through these photos that he sends me, ⁓

Dave (34:59)
Hehehehehe

Andrew McCarthy (35:11)
It's funny, the individual raw photos actually looked better than my stacked photos I take from home because there's no atmosphere. So the data is just incredibly clean to work with. ⁓ so you know, he he brings back these photos from the mission, hooks me up with the raw files, the N they're called NEF ⁓ files from the Nikon Z9 camera and the and the D5s. He actually gave me from from both. And I was able to get ⁓ I was able to stack those together.

Dave (35:18)
Right.

Andrew McCarthy (35:39)
And right away the colors just come right out of those photos. It's just like it's just right there. and you know, I I immediately like texted Reed and was like, Hey, check this out. And he like he just immediately picks up the phone, calls me, he's like, Dude, my god, that's so cool. And you know it was it was so cool. One, it just just like the fact that I was able to see I I I am actually I think potentially the first human to have ever seen some of these features because ⁓ these colors weren't

pulled out of they weren't able to be pulled out of ⁓ Apollo photos and the ⁓ the LRO, which has of course very detailedly mapped the entire moon, doesn't have the color fidelity, ⁓ that even just a a couple of the Z nine photos would have. ⁓ so their the color data in these photos was incredible and I was able to resolve all kinds of interesting things, like you know, little iron deposits, little titanium deposits, because they show up as different colors on the surface. so I you know I

Dave (36:34)
Right.

Andrew McCarthy (36:37)
shared it I shared it immediately with Reed and he was freaking out about it and posted about it to his Instagram. ⁓ and then, you know, I I worked out some of the c some of the the photos. I got the photos all stitched together and they looked great. And you know, I was I was kind of like at this like it was this weird moment. I was like I was like, man, I really want people to be able to have these on their walls. But I don't feel like I can ethically profit off them because Reed can't.

Reed has these like very strict ethics clause, he can't profit off his position. He took the photos using taxpayer funds. So, you know, it's like the public owns them as public domain. Technically, because I edited the photos and did the the work to them, I like it it was like different enough that I took technically own the copyright and s and make money selling prints. But I didn't feel right about that. It would have felt weird. ⁓ so ⁓ I I initially shared the photos with no print attached and it was just like

Here they are, like here's these photos that I, you know, this big collaboration I did with Reed. And everybody's like, Can I get a print? Can I get a print? Can I get a print? I'm like, I don't know what to do. ⁓ so then it occurred to me that maybe I should just do it for charity. ⁓ so I s I decided to do a print release with the photos where the profits would go ⁓ specifically to the University of Texas MD Anderson's Cancer Center, ⁓ so that that money could be used for cancer research.

⁓ and ⁓ yeah, we did it. We had just raised forty forty thousand dollars that way. ⁓ So pretty cool. ⁓

Dave (38:01)
It was amazing. Amazing.

But the photos themselves are just like, I mean, glorious. like, as you say, up until that moment where I saw them, I like, I assumed that the moon was just grey, you know, and then you see these beautiful colours. I mean, it's a bit like those shots of Pluto when the spacecraft took us, it was sort of flying over and you kind of see the

the brownness of Pluto and you just go wow. But I mean the moon, know, that was just awesome. Absolutely awesome.

Andrew McCarthy (38:41)
Yeah, there's a lot of color up there. And you know, one of the goals with my photography, in addition to just inspiring people, it's to show you the universe like like if you have superhuman vision. ⁓ and a lot of people think like, ⁓ you you choose those colors. You paint those colors in as like an artistic then. It's like, no, no, no. Like the colors are actually there. They're actually there locked in the regolith. It's just a matter of bringing them out, which is just I mean the the short answer is it's just by boosting the saturation of the image, but there's a little more to it than that. it's a very, very

mathematical saturation adjustment. But ⁓ but yeah, it's it's I I want to show you that the moon is not this boring lifeless rock. There's a lot of geological diversity on the moon. And that's really, really evident. ⁓ not i I mean it's evident in the very flat monochrome photos too, but when you bring out the color you can see ⁓ there is a lot of geological value on the moon. it doesn't just teach us about our universe too. I mean there's stuff in there that has actual monetary value. So

You know, I'm I'm very much on team, let's go to the moon and mine the moon and y get all these resources out of it that are already out of Earth's gravity well. And now suddenly we have a way of ⁓ extending technology out into the solar system, ⁓ because the raw materials for it are just right there, right orbiting Earth, ⁓ right at the cusp of our gravity well. We should be s we should be up there ⁓ with industry.

⁓ in my opinion. Get industry off Earth and get put it on the moon. And I think that that's what these photos kind of show us is that it has that potential.

Dave (40:14)
No, totally, totally. Space and private enterprise. ⁓ But I mean, I think that's the way to kind of go. I mean, I think what SpaceX has proven is just how, you know, being sort of more nimble around this stuff can can can can really sort of help drive the agenda. So I was kind of keen to talk about ⁓ the photos of the rocket launchers as well. So moving seamlessly on to.

SpaceX and some of the others out there. So I mean when did you decide to sort of start doing that?

Andrew McCarthy (40:52)
So so rockets are actually a big reason I got into the photography to begin with. ⁓ you know, it was right around the time I bought my first telescope that I was seeing these photos of rocket launches. It was on Reddit. I was on Reddit, like just looking at, you know, whatever was in the news and I would stumble across these incredible photos of rockets lifting off the pad. And ⁓ I didn't know it at the time, but what's funny is that one of the photographers that I saw is actually a friend of mine now, John Krauss, and I give him a lot of credit for inspiring me down the road I went down because

⁓ you know, I I I seen these just incredible photos where like you see the raw power of the engines and the details and the flames just fighting gravity to lift these rockets off the pad. And I was like, Wow, like I I would love to see a rocket launch and take a photo of a rocket launch, even though knew nothing about phot photography at the time. and so that was always like in the back of my mind. ⁓ and something interesting happened. So I I got ⁓ I got a lot of attention for a moon photo.

Back in February of twenty nineteen and I actually have it right next to me because I just took it off my wall to show somebody else, but ⁓ it's this this moon photo right here. I took this in February t twenty nineteen and it was the combination of a ton of different photography techniques. it was lucky imaging, it was high dynamic range, it was a mosaic. I did all these things to try to create like the ultimate moon photo. And then I put it out in the world

And it went viral and it was everywhere. It was in the news. It was all over. It went like as viral as that Icarus shot did. It was, it was crazy. And suddenly I had all this attention on my work when I was still new at so much stuff. And I and I felt like it put a lot of pressure on me to like learn how to use my platform and you know learn how to take better photos. Cause I like the imposter syndrome was huge. I just felt like I was the worst photographer in the world and didn't deserve all this attention. But

NASA reached out to me and they said, Hey, we love your moon photography. Can we use some for the upcoming Artemis mission? And this was around the time Artemis was being like announced as Artemis. and I was like, Yeah, like sure, go nuts. Here's a bunch of my moon photos. Like, go hog wild, like do whatever you want. And ⁓ and then you know, a couple years go by and I start suddenly I start getting these text messages ⁓ and DMs, they say, Hey Andrew.

Your moon photo with your name on it is on the side of the rocket they're taking to the moon. And there it is, right there.

Dave (43:21)
⁓ my goodness.

Andrew McCarthy (43:23)
That is ⁓ and and you can't really see it in this photo, but that's my name. It literally says my name on the side of the SLS for the Artemis One mission. So I'm like, I gotta go to that launch. Like my moon photo's on the side of the rocket, like I should go. So I go out there to Florida and and that's actually basically just hooked me up. They're like, Do you wanna come? You can be part of our social program, like come on out. And ⁓ so I I came out and ⁓ you know, I I get to like

Dave (43:29)
Wow

Andrew McCarthy (43:50)
just see where the future of you know spaceflight is being built and the history of it with ⁓ the Apollo. ⁓ all at a Kennedy Space Center. I get to go inside the VAB. ⁓ and my grandfather worked on Apollo, so this was like his old stomping ground. So I was really excited about this stuff. I was able to share it with him. And ⁓ so it ended up being a scrub when I went out there. So I missed the launch. And then I come I come back home and I'm telling all my stories to my grandpa who's kind of like sharing about his experiences when he used to work at Kennedy Space Center.

Dave (44:16)
I it. Love it.

Andrew McCarthy (44:18)
And like right after that he passes away. It was really sad. But it was like really good that I was able to connect with him about that. and unfortunately because the t the timing when he passed away, I w I actually ended up missing the the rocket launch. ⁓ I wasn't it because I wasn't able to go back out there because of memorial and everything. and it kind of banned me out. It took me a little bit out of the the rocket chasing, 'cause I I got a little bit of a buzz for the rocket chasing, but I ended up kind of going, maybe this isn't for me, you know, and I I I go back to my deep space photography.

And then I see on the news Elon Musk tried launching this giant rocket out of South Texas called Starship, and it basically blew up the pad. I mean the rocket took off. It didn't like blow up, blow up, but it's like it took off the pad and shoots concrete everywhere, like destroyed everybody's cameras in the area. It took out a van, like a giant block of concrete, like nails his van and the van's all tore up. And I and I'm watching this, like this clip on YouTube or whatever, and I say

Man, I wish I seen that. Like that would've been so cool. And it's like obviously peop you know, people like you know, hear about Elon Musk blowing stuff out in the desert and a lot of people are like, you know, it's just billionaire being stupid. But it's like that's kinda what it takes to build these huge rockets is you have to push you have to push through known physics, ⁓ known engineering technologies ⁓ to try to, you know, create new ways of inventing the technologies that can

Dave (45:20)
Ha ha ha!

Andrew McCarthy (45:44)
be scalable. So he's trying to he's he's trying to build a fully reusable rocket that's never been built before. so of course they're gonna blow some things up and I was like, man, you know what? I that feels like the future to me. Like I I should go down there. So I ended up going down for flight two, ⁓ fully integrated starship. That was ⁓ my first rocket launch. And that one blew up, but it was after it cleared the atmosphere. It blew up shortly after staging. But I was able to see it lift off the pad and at the time it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

you know, it's I I I ⁓ at the time I would I would actually rank it up there with seeing a total solar eclipse because ⁓ so it's so s total solar eclipses are just incredible. Everyone needs to go see one. and and when you're when you're watching a solar eclipse, it's it's like so surreal, it like doesn't feel real because suddenly you're seeing the three dimensions of our solar system. You're seeing the sun is very clearly this bright object backlighting the moon which is in front of it, and it feels

Dave (46:19)
We're in it.

Andrew McCarthy (46:42)
so dimensional and you can see all the planets lined up on the ecliptic plane if you look around and it's like and and you you hear like like suddenly like the birds stop chirping and the crickets start chirping and it's like this like there's this shift and it it's such like a like a an experience, like a full body experience. And ⁓ to me the rocket launch is the closest thing to that because you're seeing this spectacle and you know I was just like the day before I was just at the pad.

because they they let you go like basically right up to the rocket 'cause it's pu it's right at the cusp of public land. So I was basically right there seeing this three hundred and fifty foot tall rocket, it like a skyscraper. It's huge. And then you the the next day I'm seeing it defy gravity and go into space. I'm just like, how is this possible? And you know, fifteen seconds after the engines ignite, 'cause that where I was  you know, five miles away, suddenly it hits me. It like hits me like a ton of bricks in the chest.

Dave (47:27)
Mmm.

Andrew McCarthy (47:37)
I'm feeling the sound waves flow through my body. ⁓ and it's like it adds the visual spectacle, and I'm just like, this is just insane. Like I'm it just not only what I'm witnessing visually, but what I'm feeling with my body. And it just like, man, that bug hit me so hard. And now I've been able to and now I've been going to basically every launch I can. and and one, it's a very delightful photography challenge. ⁓ every l every launch is different in terms of

lighting, ⁓ depending on the propellant they use, you have to change your exposure differently. If you're setting cameras remotely, it's a whole nother type of challenge 'cause you're using sound triggers to activate them. ⁓ so it's it it's not only a d delightful photography challenge, but I feel like I'm truly documenting the future. ⁓ you know, it's it'd be like ⁓ photographing the first Gemini flights, ⁓ or Mercury flights, you know, before we went to the moon. ⁓ and I was there for the Artemis two launch, that

took that took those four astronauts around the moon in what is basically a modern version of Apollo eight. and I hope to be there documenting ⁓ for ⁓ Artemis III and Artemis four. Artemis four will be the first time humans set foot on the moon again ⁓ for more than fifty years. I mean it's been fifty four years almost since Apollo seventeen. So you know it's I'm really excited to hopefully be there.

Dave (48:59)
Well, I mean,

it's one of the things you've kind of inspired me to want to go and see one of these rocket launches.

Andrew McCarthy (49:07)
You should. Everybody should. It's really cool. It's worth it.

Dave (49:10)
Well,

I know, you mentioned it there, but I surprised that with SpaceX you can actually wander up and have a look at these rockets and things.

Andrew McCarthy (49:19)
Yeah. ⁓

that access is not going to last forever. But right now it's the closest a person ⁓ can get to a rocket like this. ⁓ like ⁓ assuming you don't have some kind of credentials. because you know I when I first showed up I was just a normal guy. You know, I was just I didn't like I didn't like reach out to SpaceX or anything. Like I didn't know anybody there. I was just like, ⁓ it's a public road that drives right by the the factory where they build the rockets and then it leads right up to the pad. So I literally just got in a plane.

rented a car, drove de drove up there, and just drove up to the rocket. I drove up to the rocket, I hung out, I met people, 'cause other people were just there gawking at the rocket. and and, you know, so then the next day I watched it fly to space. Actually I think it was several days after 'cause I think it scrubbed a couple of times. so that is one thing I will warn people about if they fly out to go see a rocket launch. Prepare to spend a few days there because it might not go 'cause

Dave (49:52)
you

Andrew McCarthy (50:16)
There's a lot of factors in setting these things up safely. ⁓ both there could be a hardware issue, there could be a range issue. you know, the weather is always a problem. If they see a big ⁓ if they see an Anvil cloud coming, like they won't launch. Like there's a lot of there's a lot of reasons they don't launch. ⁓ but it's worth it. It it's absolutely worth it. It's just an incredible experience.

Dave (50:35)
I think based on this again, you know, I as well as sort of peering out into space rather than at the moon with my binoculars, I think a rocket launch is very much on my on my bucket list of things to do and wish list. So, yeah, I mean, as you say, I imagine that sort of as time goes on, they'll tighten things up. So if you want to do it from a kind of public point of view, got to kind of get fast, get there fast.

Andrew McCarthy (51:06)
you know, anybody can just visit the Cape and probably see, you know, a few rocket launches. If you're if you're at near Cape Canaveral and you spend a week maybe on Cocoa, which is j just south of the ⁓ Kennedy Space Center where they launch these from, you will you pretty much guaranteed to see a couple of rocket launches. you know, they'll they won't be the same as seeing Starship, which is of course just a huge, huge vehicle, very loud, very big. ⁓ but like the Falcon Nines that they're always launching out of it are still a spectacle. They're brighter too, like

When they launch at night, it turns day to night for a second. It just or night to day. ⁓ They're so bright, they almost look like a sunrise when they start to when they when the engines first light. You're almost like, I see a light on the horizon and yeah, it's the rocket taking off. ⁓ they're they're incredible to watch.

Dave (51:39)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fantastic. Well, you mentioned ⁓ the total eclipses as well. So we've got one of those in Europe this year. I think in Spain, ⁓ certain parts of Spain, Iceland as well. Are you sort of planning to go and sort of visit that at all? ⁓

Andrew McCarthy (52:12)
Yeah,

I'm I'm going to try to try to document it. ⁓ I'm going to tr I I have no idea where I'll be because it'll be based on weather. So I was able to ⁓ figure out logistically like how to pull that off because frankly, just booking a lot of different places to stay in these contingencies is very expensive and out of my budget. So I'm most likely going to be on a boat when I shoot it. ⁓ that way I have a little bit of flexibility about where I'll be. So it it'll ⁓ it'll we'll see if it turns out.

Dave (52:30)
Thank

Okay, nice, nice, nice.

Fantastic, fantastic. Well, it's interesting because I get you know, mean, Shadowmap, we do the sun profile and suddenly what we're seeing is a lot of people are talking about it as a great tool for preparing for the eclipse because you can actually sort of line up the sun and where it would be at a particular time. So from a kind of just public point of view, it just means that sort of people can start saying, oh, well.

These are some points that I could visit. So it's interesting. I think we're planning on doing a team trip actually to Mallorca to see it. ⁓ Because I think it's a huge opportunity. I think next year is there's another is it in Australia? I think there's one next year or something. So I need to kind of check the details on that. OK.

Andrew McCarthy (53:30)
⁓ next year is also Spain, but s it's Spain

to Egypt instead of Iceland to Spain.

Dave (53:34)
Okay, yeah, that's right. Okay, yeah, you'll have to have to excuse me. My brain's a bit. I was up at four this morning trying to get some nice shots of the sunrise. So I that actually would be a great place to finish because, know, I, I, yeah, I found this brilliant field get a really lovely view of the sunrise. But I'm sort of, you know,

I sort of feel like I've only got one camera. I should probably get another camera to be honest with you. Is it better to zoom in where you know the sun's coming up or just sort of keep wide wide or you know what because what I've got is as the sun comes up it's beautiful and then it kind of flares a bit. So you know I'm trying to work out how do you stop that flaring so you kind of keep the keep the sort of crispness of the disc itself.

Andrew McCarthy (54:30)
You can just stop down your lens. That's one way to do it. ⁓ you know, you you you're decreasing your aperture size by adjusting your F stop and that will filter out. When the sun's low on the horizon still, it's still seeing through a lot of atmosphere, which acts as a natural ND filter, so you can safely shoot it. When it's higher in the sky, you probably shouldn't do this because you'll potentially damage your sensor. But when it's low on the horizon like that, yeah, just just ⁓ you can zoom in on it, you can stop down your your camera lens and you can usually

Dave (54:32)
Right.

Andrew McCarthy (54:58)
captures some pr a really nice crisp detail. that's when you can see those r the really cool like clouds forming in front of it. The ⁓ you see it like it it almost looks like the the sun is nestled in clouds too, since thinner clouds it'll cut right through but then thicker clouds block it. ⁓ so yeah, you can get some great photography when it's low on the horizon like that.

Dave (55:06)
Yeah.

I mean just ⁓ absolutely incredible this morning like the colour ⁓ you know you can literally see the Sun moving at that when it's very low on the horizon which is you know always kind of blows my mind that you can literally see it moving so yeah no fantastic well listen thank you so much for ⁓

Andrew McCarthy (55:29)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (55:42)
for joining. I really, really appreciated your time, really appreciated the conversation, really appreciate your work as well. So keep doing what you're doing and you know, I just think it's fabulous. I'm really excited to see what you've got up your sleeve next.

Andrew McCarthy (55:59)
Thanks. It was a pleasure chatting with you.

Dave (56:02)
Fantastic.

David James Vaughan Wallace (56:07)
Thanks for listening to Sunlight Matters, brought to you by ShadowMap, where we explore how sunlight influences the way we build, design and live each day. If you like what you heard today, be sure to subscribe, follow and leave a review on your preferred streaming platform. You can also search Sunlight Matters on Google to find all our episodes, guest information and resources about sunlight analysis, solar exposure and the best home orientation for natural light.

You can also head over to shadowmap.org where you can download our iOS or Android app for free today to visualize how the sun is currently impacting your life. We appreciate you being part of the conversation and we'll see you next time where you can keep exploring the world through the lens of light.