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

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

Original – Cerro Tololo Observatory complex, with the open dome Blanco Telescope in center-right

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]