Selecting images from the recent trip and stitching together panoramas is an ongoing effort, and will be for a while yet. The panoramas range from the “artistic: that looks great” to the “useful for references: that looks kinda odd.” Many of them have missing sections, but so long as the panorama captured the aircraft I was after, having a corner missing is ok.

The combination of a telephoto lens with a 24 megapixel sensor has led to some *monstrous* panoramas. For example:

This “partial” panorama of the X-15 is 40,700 pixels wide. At 300 dpi (pretty much the standard for photo printing), that’s 135 inches wide. That’s 11.3 *feet* (or 3.45 meters) wide.

Another partial, this time of the XB-70. At 300 dpi, this one would be 14.75 feet long. If you look just behind the cockpit side window you can just make out some markings.

Well… this is a crop of the full-rez panorama showing just those markings:

Balcony panorama at the SAC Museum in Nebraska:

Balcony overview panorama of the Cold War gallery at the USAF Museum:

XB-70, X-15, lifting bodies, Gemini B:

Balcony overview panorama of Building 4 at the USAF museum:

The “Valkyrie cafe” at the USAF museum has a large mural painting of the XB-70. It’s several dozen feet wide and impossible to photograph straight-on (not only is there stuff in the way, it’s too huge for the space available). But there is one spot where you can get the whole thing. So, a number of photos were stitched together then “warped” to get it back into rectangular format. And the end result is pretty spiffy, and at 300 dpi it’d print out at 53 inches long. Needs some color correction.

These images have of course been scaled waaaaaay down to fit on the blog. Those who signed up for the DVD will of course get the full rez versions (though some compromises may be needed… that ginormous XB-70 panorama is over 800 megabytes).