Hokies Thank the World!
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View photographs on-line at http://www.vt.edu/thank_the_world/
With remembrance in our hearts, we Hokies send a message of thanks to the world!
On November 17, 2007 thousands gathered on the Virginia Tech Drillfield to spell out a message of thanks to the world in recognition of the global outpouring of support and love for the Virginia Tech community following the events of April 16. The message was recorded in red, blue, green, near-infrared, and panchromatic wavelengths by the the IKONOS satellite orbiting 423 miles above the Earth in a north-to-south direction at 4.7 miles per second. To record the message, the satellite maneuvered it's optics in reverse to a 139.33-degree azimuth and 66.85-degree angle looking north towards Blacksburg and pierced through high-altitude clouds at 11:10:54 am EST. Amazingly, the message was illuminated by sunlight at the exact time of the satellite image! Thanks to everyone who came together in person and in spirit to create this beautiful and heartfelt expression of gratitude to the world! Happy Holidays!
Peace and love to the world.
IKONOS satellite image by GeoEye. Image processing by VirginiaView.
Preview JPG (200 KB) delivered by GeoEye on 11/19/2007
Enhanced JPG (1084 KB) rendered
by VirginiaView 11/20/2007
The full extent of the satellite image is approximately 100-square kilometers, stretching from Brush Mountain (upper left) across Blacksburg (center) to Ellett Valley (lower right). The Virginia Tech Drillfield is located near the center of this November 17, 2007 scene from the GeoEye IKONOS satellite. This true color rendering by Peter Sforza combines red, green, and blue wavelengths (3.7-meter pixels) into a RGB color image, and sharpened using the panchromatic band (0.92-meter pixels). Note the sun's angle of elevation was 32 degrees and the azimuth was 164.1 degrees (north being zero).
JPG (1.9 MB) of the entire scene at 30% resolution
JPG (7.13 MB) of the entire scene at 50% resolution
JPG (51 MB) of the entire scene at full resolution
Videography from Burruss Hall tower courtesy of Horse Archer Productions. Video editing by Peter Sforza and Amos Desjardins, Department of Geography. The video was recorded from Burruss Hall thus giving reverse angle perspective of the message on the Drillfield. To create the VT timelapse, we reversed the last minutes of the event, increased the speed by 1000%, mirrored the clip to make a loop, vertically flipped the entire video and clipped the frame to show only the VT.
30 MB QuickTime .MOV Time lapse
Hokies Thank the World video. (coming soon)
Video
footage courtesy of Horse Archer Prodcutions, Audio track "When
Tragedy Strikes"
recorded
by Blacksburg musicians Eddrick EZ McClain
(lyrics, vocals) and Curious Strange (Chad Florstedt, guitar; Joey Ciucci,
keyboards; Rory Glass, guitar; Nick Kalen, bass; Justin Beach, drums)
in the Virginia Tech Department of Music Recording Studio on Tuesday,
November 6, 2007. Recording engineer and production by
Chris Lawrence, with assistance from Pete Thiele, and Michael Dunston.
View photographs at http://www.vt.edu/thank_the_world/
The volunteer effort involved in the Hokies Thank the World event was crucial to it's success. For additional information about volunteering in your community visit VT Engage - http://www.engage.vt.edu/
In the satellite image...can you find the helicopter piloted by Steve Booth? How about the Hokie Flying Club's Cessna piloted by David Robinson?
Photo by MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times 11/17/07… Members of the Virginia Tech community outline the phrase “VT THANKS YOU” as part of the “Hokies Thank the World” event on the Virginia Tech Drillfield in Blacksburg Va. Saturday November 17 2007. The thank you message to the world is for the global outpouring of support for the Virginia Tech community following the shooting tragedy of April 16.
The "Hokies Thank the World" event brought together thousands of Hokies on the Virginia Tech Drillfield to spell out a message of thanks to the world in recognition of the global outpouring of support and love for the Virginia Tech community following the events of April 16. The message of thanks was recorded by ground, aerial, and satellite imagery and isbeing shared with the world through www.vt.edu/thank_the_world and www.HokiesThankTheWorld.org. The event took place on November 17, 2007 from 10:35am to approximately 11:12am on the Virginia Tech Drillfield in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Thanks to our many sponsors, advisors,
and volunteers, including:
Virginia Tech Department
of Geography, Student
Government Association,
Graduate Student Assembly, Hokies
United, VirginiaView Remote
Sensing Consortium, Center for
Geospatial Information Technologies, Virginia
Geospatial Extension Program, Department
of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science, Department
of Music, Hokie Flying Club,
Mills Associated Arborists, Horse
Archer Productions, UUSA,
Marching Virginians, and many, many others!
Please direct any questions or comments regarding the event to sforza@vt.edu or 540-231-1867.
Hokies Thank the World flyer - high-resolution PDF or high-resolution JPG
Hokies Thank the World flyer - medium-resolution PDF or medium-resolution GIF
Read the Nov. 7, 2007 press release