Moving image of horse projected on clouds above Nottingham

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-33414248

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A moving image has been projected on to clouds in what is believed to be a world first.

A galloping horse and rider were beamed onto clouds from an aeroplane using a laser version of a 19th-Century movie projector above Nottingham.

Artist Dave Lynch from Leeds said he and his team had spent three years researching Project Nimbus.

He said he hoped the technology would be used in the future to create art installations in the skies.

The idea, Mr Lynch said, is based on the zoopraxiscope, invented in 1879 by Eadweard Muybridge, which was believed to be the world's first movie projector.

Whereas Muybridge's device shone a sodium light through slits in a spinning disc of images to project a moving image on to a wall, Mr Lynch's shines a laser through lenses on the disc to project the images on to clouds.

He and his team searched for hours for the right type of cloud aboard a Cessna 172 aircraft above Nottingham to create the spectacle.

The zoopraxiscope

The project took Mr Lynch three years to come to fruition, working alongside a scientist.

"Part of the original idea behind it was that you can't see where the image is coming from - it gives a sense of disbelief and magic," he said.