backlit acrylic prints at the Steward ObservatoryIf you happen to be walking the halls at the Steward Observatory on the University of Arizona’s campus, then you may run across these stunning backlit acrylic prints. The astro-photography was done by Adam Block at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter. It took many hours to gather enough light through the telescope to create the pictures of the scene displayed here of the various galaxies and atronomical imagery. In addition to the time spent to capture the images, there were several hours in post production processing and applying an artistic rendering of each image. The added colors are representative of the wavelengths of light emitted by each object. Not only does it add visual interest to the image, it is also a coding of sorts of the scientific data.

Artisan Colour then printed these images on a material called Duratrans. This is a photographic back lit film that is meant to be displayed with light shining behind the print in a light box. It is a perfect match for this type of imagery. It gives the viewer the impression that they are really looking through the telescope themselves. Because we use an Oce LightJet 5000 to print these images, the true photographic process retains all of the small and fine detail that was so painstakenly captured.

Our thanks to Adam Block for choosing us to work with him on the backlit acrylic prints project!