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Hello, my name is Bob Franke and I am not the well
known folk singer. I may have to change my web presence to Robert
Franke. The image, to the left, was taken on my retirement day in Feb 2007.
I was a software developer for a Fortune 500 company near Seattle, WA.
All images, before 2007, were taken from the Seattle neighborhood of
Magnolia. This is about three miles from the core of downtown Seattle.
I now live in Chino Valley, AZ with my wife, Joanna.
Mission Statement
The mission of the
Focal Pointe Observatory is to
produce "pretty pictures." Purists will say my images are bogus
because the data is highly modified and all scientific value is lost. Well,
like many other astro-artists, I just don’t care about science with my
images. The closest I may get to science will probably be searching
for a super nova. Shown below is a comparison of an unprocessed "scientific" and
a
"pretty picture" image. The two images were created from the same data.
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original unprocessed |
highly processed
pretty picture |
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After 20
years of engineering software development, I was burned out on
programming. I am now starting to finish some of the
programs I have started for astrophotography. One free
program is now available, just click the "My Software"
link. |
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