Machined out of aluminum, this one-off panel for the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences is a testimony to how well Sky-Skan could execute on bespoke hardware + automation software for clients. I had about a day with the pieces together to get some beauty shots, so I quickly set up some lights and grabbed one of the field techs as a stand-in astronomer at the controls!

While impressive in person, this console was actually quite a challenge to turn into an interesting photo. You can see what appears to be several lights casting different shadows to give form to what’s essentially a flat surface. However, I only had a minimum kit and so moved around lights with different exposures and composited them later in Photoshop for the final image.

I’ve included some of the other angles and close-ups, just to show that a relatively straightforward piece of gear can look really good with the right lighting!