By now many people know of former Queen rocker Brian May’s Ph.D. in Astrophysics, but less well-known is May’s passion for stereoscopy. He’s now combined these two loves and plans to release a series of astronomy-focused stereoscopic cards for low-fi, 3-D star-gazing.

May told NPR’s Terry Gross in an interview last year: “All throughout those days when we were in Queen on tour, I would get up and think, ‘Hmm. I’m in Philadelphia for one of few times in my life. What will I do?’ Very often I would go out and try to find someone who would sell me some stereoscopic photographs, because it was always a passion.”

These new cards allow anyone with an appropriate viewer to see the planets and stars depicted on them in visual stereo, a sort of static 3-D.

Developed in the mid-19th century, stereoscopic cards present two offset images separately to the left and right eyes, creating the illusion of depth for the viewer. Such is May’s commitment to the antiquated process that in 2008, he and business partner Elena Vidal resurrected the London Stereoscopic Company to reacquaint the public with “the magic of stereoscopy.”

The relentless May designed and put started manufacturing the OWL Stereoscope in 2009.

May’s book A Village Lost and Found was published the same year. It presented his own research on 59 stereo cards by photographer Thomas Richard Williams. Facts about Williams’ work had been obscured until May, a Poirot of photo-history, found that the previously unidentified village in Williams’ stereo cards was Hinton Waldrist in Oxfordshire.

View some of May’s stereoscopic images.