Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Voting period ends on 6 Nov 2024 at 16:29:51 (UTC)

Reason: Quality lead image in Cerro Tololo observatory article, with the open dome Blanco Telescope in center-right.
Articles in which this image appears: Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Space/Understanding
Creator: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Matsopoulos

Yann, no I don't think so. The beams on the telescope's housing are vertical. Bammesk (talk) 01:08, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, weird that the horizon is so sloping... Yann (talk) 11:15, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's not really horizon. Just layers of mountains (horizon would be past the mountains). I understand if you don't like it. Bammesk (talk) 03:10, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Definitely titled. If the camera is pointing down the lines on a building will not be vertical ro|3ek (talk) 17:24, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Photographers often correct that type of perspective tilt, so the lines come out vertical. See this recent nomination for example where we fixed the tilt ourselves. Bammesk (talk) 03:10, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support – All the lines that should be vertical (the dome aperture, the silo-type things) are. I think the mountains really do just slope downward like that. Moonreach (talk) 16:33, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I double-checked, and the silos aren't truly vertical, although they're close. The exterior vertical elements on the observatory base are, though. It's possible that there really is a tilt here, but if there is, it's much more subtle that then horizon line suggests. Moonreach (talk) 19:41, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. That was wide-angle lens distortion. I thought it wasn't significant, but since you noticed it . . . now fixed. BTW the silos are water tanks. Bammesk (talk) 00:15, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

To illustrate the camera rotation in this photo as per discussion above, I don't have a lens correction profile for the drone used here, so the perspective lines won't quite match. ro|3ek (talk) 13:23, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I disagree. The camera is pointing northeast. Google Earth here and here and the elevation map here confirm that's the natural slope of the mountains. In the screenshots, the observatory is at the center of the red circles. Some mountainous skylines just aren't horizontal. Bammesk (talk) 01:14, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]