Incalculable Beauty

When I first started using Lightwave back in '94, I had an idea for a shot. A Tower, rising through the clouds, serving as a transfer station between atmospheric vehicles and those bound for orbit or the moon. We would start looking down on the clouds as a Venturestar-style ship bursts through the clouds. We pan up to follow it, revealing the tower puncturing the serene beauty of the cloud tops, and the moon in the distance, twinkling with the lights of the permanent settlements there. The ship approaches the tower as an orbital ships launches from it. That was the idea, anyway. I actually started the shot, but like so many big ideas back then, never finished it. Lightwave wouldn't have been up to the task, even if I had been, and I wasn't. But this morning, almost that very shot - minus the tower and the moon settlements - was sent to me by a friend, from the Astronomy Picture Of The Day. It's simply stunning, and I instantly made it my Windows backdrop. I'll do the same at home tonight. What gets me is that even in my wildest imaginings of this shot, I'd never pictured it being this beautiful. Marvel at it, and that we live in an age that can deliver these images to us. What a view!