Recent Posts - Page 4 - Eric Cheng
Eric Cheng

Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC1396)

I finally had a clear night–the first in over a month–so I set up the telescope and new astro camera in the yard to image the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC1396). I’m using the same telescope as before, but the rig now requires a focal length reducer / field flattener in order to match the increased ...

3D-360 and 180: Why do people sometimes look too big or too small in VR?

In the VR video formats 3D-180 and 3D-360, human scale is very important. If you see an immersive video in which people look too small, it's because the camera's stereo baseline was more than 64mm (hyperstereo). If people look too big, like giants, then the camera's stereo baseline was less than 64mm (hypostereo)...

iFi iDefender+

Eliminating hum, hiss, and noise in USB audio interfaces

If you're the type who uses a USB audio interface from your computer for listening to music, check out the iFi iDefender+ USB Audio Ground Loop Eliminator.

Fixing Thunderbolt in Windows on a MacBook Pro Running Bootcamp

I cannot believe how much of a pain it has been to get Thunderbolt devices to work properly in Windows on a MacBook Pro. After weeks of troubleshooting, I finally found a solution that seems to be working.

Large silicone headset hanger for safe, under-desk mounting

The Neetto silicone headphone hanger is the only mountable headphone hanger I've found to be large and soft enough to hold headphones without leaving compression marks. Here is a 3D-printed adapter that will let you use this mount under your desk.

Comet NEOWISE over San Francisco, July 12, 2020

A random thought on Facebook led to 60+ productive comments from other photographers, resulting in a 3:15am journey to San Francisco to set up for a shot of Comet NEOWISE, which was ostensibly to be positioned just over the Bay Bridge.

Glacier in Alaska, 2007

It’s time to start using Amazon Glacier Deep Archive for backups

Let’s talk data storage and cloud backups. It’s time: I’ve started uploading backups to Amazon Glacier Deep Archive, which is about $1/TB-month. My data is categorized as “warm” and “frozen”. “Warm” data is active: it is kept on my workstation or on my primary NAS, and is backed-up to a second local NAS as frequent, ...

Underwater Filmmaking Legends: Howard / Michelle Hall, Marty Snyderman (VR180)

Relax for a minute with 3D-180 vignettes from Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile (Patagonia), and of ancient redwood trees in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Northern California, including footage from the Grove of Titans.

“Take a Breath” VR180 Scenics: Patagonia and California Redwoods

Relax for a minute with 3D-180 vignettes from Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile (Patagonia), and of ancient redwood trees in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Northern California, including footage from the Grove of Titans.