Quantum Physics
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During sunset, a cloud flew in in an amazing shape (a bird, a dragon, and maybe an angel ...)
A little understanding of the physics of cloud formation underscores the complexity of the atmosphere and sheds light on why predicting weather for more than a few days is such a challenge.
Six types of clouds you can see and how they can help you understand the weather.
1) Cumulus clouds - On a sunny day, rays warm the earth, which heats the air located directly above it. The heated air rises upward due to convection and forms cumulus clouds. These “good weather” clouds are like cotton wool. If you look at the sky filled with cumulus clouds, you can see that they have a flat bottom, located at the same level for all clouds. At this altitude, air rising from ground level cools down to the dew point. It usually doesn't rain from cumulus clouds, which means the weather will be good.
2) Cumulonimbus clouds.
Small cumulus clouds do not rain, but if they grow and grow in height, it is a sign that heavy rain is coming soon. This often happens in summer when morning cumulus clouds turn into cumulonimbus during the day. Cumulonimbus clouds often have a flat top. Air convection occurs inside such a cloud, and it gradually cools until it reaches the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. At this moment, it loses its buoyancy and can no longer rise higher. Instead, it spreads out to the sides, forming the characteristic anvil shape.
3) Cirrus clouds form in very high layers of the atmosphere. They are smoky because they are composed entirely of ice crystals falling in the atmosphere. When cirrus clouds are carried by winds moving at different speeds, they take on a characteristic curved shape. And only at very high altitudes or at high latitudes, cirrus clouds give out rain that reaches the ground.
4) Stratus Clouds - A low-lying, continuous cloud sheet that covers the sky. Stratus clouds are formed by slowly rising air or gentle winds that cover the cold land or sea surface with moist air. Stratus clouds are thin, therefore, despite the gloomy picture, it is unlikely to rain from them, a little drizzle at most. Stratus clouds are identical to fog, so if you've ever walked in a mountainous area on a foggy day, you've been inside a cloud.
5) Lenticular clouds. Smooth and lenticular lenticular clouds form when air is blown up and over a mountain range, and as it travels over a mountain, the air descends to its previous level. At this time, it heats up and the cloud evaporates. But it can slip further, as a result of which the air rises again and forms another lenticular cloud. This can result in a chain of clouds extending far beyond the mountain range. The interaction of wind with mountains and other surface features is one of the many details that must be taken into account in computer simulations to obtain accurate weather predictions.
6) Kelvin - Helmholtz like a breaking ocean wave. When air masses at different heights move horizontally at different speeds, their state becomes unstable. The boundary between the air masses begins to ripple and form large waves, such clouds are quite rare.
The photo was taken in the city of Konakovo. Russia. On the banks of the Volga River.
Tra must've taken a wrong turn...she signed up for fashion school...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzkiJJ_NkD0
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Trying my hand at some landscape shots! 😊
You know I scream in my dreams like an animal
I know it feels like it's wrong to be something else
We know those thoughts live with us
sunk down, them nerves much thinner
I crawl, you sob
No sanctuary found
When daylight finally falls
Until the morning comes
My eyes can't see
But I can feel
What is it?
Generated By Midjourney V6
---
**🎬 Prompt :**
> Une vaste vallée antique baignée par une lumière dorée de fin d’après-midi, ambiance méditerranéenne rappelant la Grèce antique. Au premier plan, une barque en bois patiné flotte sur une eau turquoise cristalline légèrement agitée, ses reflets scintillant sous le soleil. Trois hommes athlétiques, à la peau bronzée et aux cheveux bouclés, vêtus de tuniques rouges drapées, rament avec effort, leurs muscles tendus captant la lumière chaude.
>
> La caméra est positionnée légèrement en contre-plongée derrière la barque, créant une immersion cinématographique, avec un flou de profondeur de champ subtil sur les rameurs au premier plan et une netteté progressive vers l’arrière.
>
> En arrière-plan, deux temples majestueux de style dorique s’élèvent sur des formations rocheuses, leurs colonnes massives baignées de lumière dorée, marquées par le temps mais imposantes. Le temple de gauche domine une colline escarpée, tandis que celui de droite se dresse plus isolé au bord de l’eau.
>
> Des falaises et montagnes enveloppent la scène, avec une végétation méditerranéenne dense, ponctuée d’arbres aux feuillages dorés et verts. Le ciel est vaste, rempli de nuages volumineux et lumineux, traversés par des oiseaux en vol, ajoutant du dynamisme et une sensation d’échelle épique.
>
> L’atmosphère est calme mais majestueuse, avec une légère brume atmosphérique donnant de la profondeur. Des petites embarcations et silhouettes humaines sont visibles au loin, renforçant le réalisme et la vie de la scène.
>
> Style visuel ultra réaliste, rendu 8K, textures détaillées (bois, pierre, eau), éclairage global illumination, couleurs cinématographiques chaudes, contraste doux, légère granulation filmique. Inspiration : fresque antique mêlée à un rendu cinématographique moderne type film épique historique.
>
> **Paramètres recommandés ** : ultra-detailed, photorealistic, cinematic lighting, volumetric clouds, depth of field, HDR, global illumination, 8k, sharp focus, epic composition, golden hour, realistic water physics.
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**🎬 Prompt:**
> A vast ancient valley bathed in warm golden-hour sunlight, evoking the atmosphere of classical Ancient Greece. In the foreground, a weathered wooden boat floats on clear turquoise water, gently rippling and reflecting shimmering sunlight. Three athletic men with sun-kissed skin and curly hair, dressed in flowing red draped tunics, row in unison, their muscles subtly highlighted by the warm light.
>
> The camera is positioned slightly low and behind the boat, creating an immersive cinematic perspective, with a shallow depth of field softly blurring the rowers in the foreground while gradually sharpening toward the background.
>
> In the distance, two majestic Doric temples rise dramatically atop rocky formations. Their massive columns are illuminated by golden light, aged yet imposing. The left temple dominates a steep hillside, while the right temple stands more isolated near the water’s edge.
>
> Surrounding the scene are rugged cliffs and distant mountains covered in Mediterranean vegetation, with trees displaying warm golden and green tones. The sky is expansive, filled with large, voluminous clouds glowing in the sunlight, while birds soar across the scene, adding motion and scale.
>
> The atmosphere is serene yet epic, enhanced by subtle atmospheric haze that adds depth. Small boats and distant human figures can be seen across the water, reinforcing realism and scale.
>
> Ultra-realistic visual style, 8K resolution, highly detailed textures (wood, stone, water), global illumination, cinematic warm color grading, soft contrast, slight film grain. Inspired by a fusion of ancient fresco aesthetics and modern epic historical cinema.
>
> **Recommended parameters :** ultra-detailed, photorealistic, cinematic lighting, volumetric clouds, depth of field, HDR, global illumination, 8k, sharp focus, epic composition, golden hour, realistic water physics.
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--v 6 --ar 16:9 --style raw --q 2 --s 100 --chaos 5 --seed 42
"Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
Want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you?
So baby, talk to me
Like lovers do
Walk with me
Like lovers do
Talk to me
Like lovers do"
Eurythmics - Here Comes The Rain Again
Head: LeL Evo X
Body: eBODY - REBORN -
Hair: DOUX - Mishi hairstyle [BLOGGER PACK]
Ears: L'Etre - Ringed mesh ears
Street lamp with poses:
#LOVEBREAK 245 Singin' in the Rain SET
Mainstore: Mainstore TP
Marketplace: LINK
Umbrella: Comes with the Set
Rain: [DDD] Simplest Rain - Single
Outfit:
Ahlure - Tracy Bikini - Exclusive Release
Oracle - Venetia Outfit - Latex - Black
-KC- LENA PUMPS / 55 COLORS FATPACK
Made at Sunny's Studio:
BG: .PALETO.Backdrop:. MK225 (MATERIAL)(PHYSICS)(LIGHT)
It was so interesting to watch the frost form around the water droplets on the window. It was a toasty 20 degrees inside my garage, but much colder on the other side of the glass. Forecast calls for temperatures to drop to -10 degrees F (-23 C) by morning, with windchills beyond -20 F.
Frost on window glass.
Jefferson, Wisconsin, USA
6 degrees F (-14 C)
Aurora borealis early May 11 from Deception Pass State Park, Washington. The Adobe Lightroom Denoise AI feature was used to reduce noise, particularly in the reflection.
Astro-Physics 130 GTX + QUADTCC @ F/4.5
Moravian G3 11002 + Astrodon RGB
Astro Physics 1200
RGB: 120x300s bin 1x1
Total exposure: 31h
Captured with Sequence Generator Pro
Processed with Pixinsight
In physics, "entanglement" refers to a quantum phenomenon where two or more particles become linked in such a way that measuring the state of one particle instantly determines the state of the others, even if they are separated by a large distance, essentially creating a "correlated" relationship between them, regardless of the distance separating them; this is considered a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics and is often described as "spooky action at a distance" due to its seemingly instantaneous nature.
Please refrain from posting comments with images in them or awards. Comments with (group)images in them will be gently deleted, thanks.
Reflections of some of the buildings of the Institut für Physik (institute for physics) at the technical university in Darmstadt, Germany. This shot was too good to pass by. It may look like there a lot of notes here, but they are in fact the windows frames (danke Sabine für den Wink).
Please view in full size for best effect.
All that Jazz (Chicago)
Come on babe, why don’t we paint the town?
And all that jazz
I’m gonna rouge my knees and roll my stockings down
And all that jazz
Start the car, I know a whoopee spot
Where the gin is cold, but the piano’s hot
It’s just a noisy hall where there’s a nightly brawl
And all... that... jazz
Skidoo
And all that jazz
Hotcha...Whoopee
And all that jazz
Slick your hair, and wear your buckle shoes
And all that jazz
I hear that Father Dipp is gonna blow the blues
And all that jazz
Hold on hun, we’re gonna bunny hug
I bought some aspirin, down at United Drug
In case you shake apart, and want a brand new start
To do... that... jazz
Find a flask, we’re playing fast and loose
And all that jazz
Right up here is where I store the juice
And all that jazz
Come on babe, we’re gonna brush the sky
I betcha lucky Lindy
Never flew so high
Cause in the stratosphere
How could he lend an ear
To all... that... jazz?
Oh, you’re gonna see your sheba shimmy shake
And all that jazz
Oh, she’s gonna shimmy till her garters break
And all that jazz
Show her where to park her girdle
Oh, her mother’s blood’ll curdle *
Did she hear, her baby's queer*
For all... that... jazz!
No, I’m no one’s wife
But, oh I love my life
And all... that... jazz!!
That jazz!
Perfect for any bedroom this bed contains lots of animations and texture sets!
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A two panel widefield Narrowband (HaOIII bi-color) Mosaic of a section of the Veil Nebula Complex (Supernova Remnant).
The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop (radio source W78, or Sharpless 103), a large but relatively faint Supernova Remnant. The source Supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun, which exploded around 8,000 years ago. The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 36 times the area of the full Moon). Data from FUSE (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explore) places the nebula at a distance of about 1,470 light-years away. This category of Deep-sky Object is also known as a Filamentary Nebula.
The Western Veil & Pickering's Triangle:
This image shows 2 of the regions in Veil Nebula Complex:
The Western Veil (also known as Caldwell 34), consisting of NGC 6960 (the "Witch's Broom", "Finger of God", or "Filamentary Nebula") near the foreground star 52 Cygni;
Pickering's Triangle (or Pickering's Triangular Wisp), brightest at the north central edge of the loop, but visible in photographs continuing toward the central area of the loop.
Technical Info:
24 x 300 sec. 7nm Hydrogen-Alpha (Ha) per panel.
24 x 300 sec. 6.5nm Doubly Ionized Oxygen (OIII) per panel.
William Optics WO Star 71 Refractor Telescope.
Exposures at -20°C on my QHY163M Camera.
Integration time 8 hours total (4 hours per panel).
Calibration frames: Bias, Darks and Flats.
Image Acquisition:
Sequence Generator Pro with the "Mosaic and Framing Wizard".
Plate Solving:
Astrometry.net ANSVR Blind Solver via SGP.
Processing:
Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,
and finished in Photoshop.
Astrometry Info:
Center RA, Dec: 312.171, 30.742
Center RA, hms: 20h 48m 40.959s
Center Dec, dms: +30° 44' 30.452"
Size: 2.55 x 1.78 deg
Radius: 1.554 deg
Pixel scale: 5.74 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 124 degrees E of N
View an Annotated Sky Chart for this image.
View this image in the WorldWideTelescope.
&creditsUrl=&ra=311.528525&dec=30.983657&x=481.5&y=758.7&rotation=55.72&thumb=http://nova.astrometry.net/image/5340767){kind=link}
Flickr Explore:
Download mh_Astro_Tools Suite:
(or from GitHub)
Also see:
Photo usage and Copyright:
Medium-resolution photograph licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Terms (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). For High-resolution Royalty Free (RF) licensing, contact me via my site: Contact.
Martin
-
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John Bolin donated some beautiful images....thank you!!! :
www.flickr.com/groups/vintage_madness/
I also was lucky enough to obtain permission to use these physics images from a professor of physics who created the diagrams.
and simple physics demand for
I've been very curious how just a half of my old doubleanastigmat would render wideopen on 8x10. And even more, de-focussed on purpose.
It's a High Five
and a bye
I can't tell
I just did
I saw it,
I asked for the hand*
& click
I could tell a bit
but all those would be afterwards reasoning and explanations for myself
I do see them
and remember
but for the image
it's in the world
and that's what it is about in the first place
and it would be afterwards reasoning really
looking back I wonder
cause all I connect with it now
has not happened yet, back then
It's nice to work like that
especially with all that size
*it's impossible to do this alone. You're working with millimeters here.
___
Roidweek 2015.2 # day 3
Sinar P 8x10 / Polaroid 809, exp. '87
This stunning image by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy NGC 5643 in the constellation of Lupus (The Wolf). Looking this good isn’t easy; thirty different exposures, for a total of 9 hours observation time, together with the high resolution and clarity of Hubble, were needed to produce an image of such high level of detail and of beauty.
NGC 5643 is about 60 million light-years away from Earth and has been the host of a recent supernova event (not visible in this latest image). This supernova (2017cbv) was a specific type in which a white dwarf steals so much mass from a companion star that it becomes unstable and explodes. The explosion releases significant amounts of energy and lights up that part of the galaxy.
The observation was proposed by Adam Riess, who was awarded a Nobel Laureate in physics 2011 for his contributions to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe, alongside Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.; CC BY 4.0; Acknowledgement: Mahdi Zamani
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Dark Nebula in Scorpius
Optic: Astro-Physics 127 Starfire
Mount: Celestron CGE PRO
Autoguider: ZWO ASI290MM mini, Phd guiding
Camera: QSI 583wsg
Filters: 31mm unmounted Astrodon gen. 2
Frames: RGB 4X600sec each Bin2 -25°
Processing: Pixinsight, Photoshop
APT automation
SQM 21.85
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All my photography celebrates the physics of light! The McGucken Principle of the fourth expanding dimension: The fourth dimension is expanding at the rate of c relative to the three spatial dimensions: dx4/dt=ic .
Lao Tzu--The Tao: Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
Light Time Dimension Theory: The Foundational Physics Unifying Einstein's Relativity and Quantum Mechanics: A Simple, Illustrated Introduction to the Unifying Physical Reality of the Fourth Expanding Dimensionsion dx4/dt=ic !: geni.us/Fa1Q
"Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life." --John Muir
Epic Stoicism guides my fine art odyssey and photography: geni.us/epicstoicism
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” --John Muir
Epic Poetry inspires all my photography: geni.us/9K0Ki Epic Poetry for Epic Landscape Photography: Exalt Fine Art Nature Photography with the Poetic Wisdom of John Muir, Emerson, Thoreau, Homer's Iliad, Milton's Paradise Lost & Dante's Inferno Odyssey
“The mountains are calling and I must go.” --John Muir
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All art is but imitation of nature.-- Seneca (Letters from a Stoic - Letter LXV: On the First Cause)
The universe itself is God and the universal outpouring of its soul. --Chrysippus (Quoted by Cicero in De Natura Deorum)
Best wishes on your Epic Odyssey!
Homer: Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home. . . --Homer's Odyssey, Book I
Van den Bergh 14 & 15 along with SH2-202 in HaLRGB. This is a 2-panel mosaic from data I finished capturing a few months ago but hadn't had the time to sit down and process until now. I am properly proud of this image, more so than any of the others I have made since going remote. The stark contrast of the blue reflection nebula and the hydrogen alpha emission from the Sharpless cloud juxtaposed next to each other make this an extremely dynamic region.
I have not seen that many images of these objects in particular on Astrobin and thus wanted to shoot it in the hopes of inspiring others to make even better images of it in the future.
- Location: Remote Observatory (Bortle 1, SQM 21.99) near Fort Davis, TX
- Total Exposure Time: 77.9 Hours
Equipment:
- Scope: Esprit 100ED w/ 1x Flattener
- Imaging Camera: QHY 268M
- Filters: Chroma HaLRGB (36mm)
- Mount: Astro Physics Mach1GTO
- Guidescope: SVBony 50mm Guidescope
- Guide camera: ASI 120mm mini
- Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35
- Accessories: Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2, QHY Polemaster, Optec Alnitak Flip Flat
------------------------------------------------------------
Software:
- N.I.N.A for image acquisition, platesolving, and framing
- PHD2 for guiding
- PixInsight for processing
-------------------------------------------------------------
Acquisition:
- Ha: 314 x 5m (5nm)
- L: 500 x 3m
- R: 185 x 3m
- G: 174 x 3m
- B: 176 x 3m
- All images at Gain 56, Offset 25 (Readout mode 1) and -5C sensor temperature
- 20 flats per filter
- Master Dark, Flat & Bias from Library
- Nights: 9/26-9/28, 9/30-10/2, 10/12, 10/13, 10/20-10/23, 10/26-10/30, 11/2, 11/3, 11/5, 11/7/22
-------------------------------------------------------------
Processing:
For each pair of masters per filter:
- DynamicCrop
- MureDenoise
- DynamicBackgroundExtraction
- ImageSolver script with distortion correction enabled to platesolve each panel
- MosaicByCoordinates script to create mosaic master templates
- PhotometricMosaic script to stitch panels into masters for each filter
RGB Processing (apply to each master):
- DynamicCrop to remove mosaic edges
- DynamicBackgroundExtraction
- StarAlign G/B/Ha to Red
- Combine RGB linear masters into color linear image with ChannelCombination
- DynamicBackgroundExtraction
- SpectrophotometricColorCalibration
- StarXterminator to remove stars for processing and save star_mask
- NoiseXterminator x2 for noise reduction
- BackgroundNeutralization with preview for color correction
- NoiseXterminator at 0.25 for further NR
- HistogramTransformation for initial stretch and then further green channel tweak
Create Continuum-Subtracted Image for non-linear Ha Addition:
- StarAlign Ha master to Red
- PixelMath to assign Red and Ha to HRR as RGB respectively
- BackgroundNeutralization using background preview and ColorCalibration to isolate Ha signal
- StarXterminator to remove stars from linear image
Luminance Processing:
- DynamicCrop
- DynamicBackgroundExtraction
- StarAlign to Red
- StarXterminator to remove and extract stars - save stars_only image
- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch for intial stretch
- HistogramTransformation x3 for further stretch
- CurvesTransformation for contrast
- UnsharpMask with luminance mask applied to sharpen reflection tendrils
- ACDNR with luminance mask applied for slight noise reduction
Combine Luminance and RGB:
- LRGBCombination with chrominance NR enabled
- Extract luminance mask and CurvesTransformation to super stretch
- Apply luminance mask and invert mask
- MultiscaleMedianTransform with inverted lum mask for chrominance noise reduction
Add Ha to LRGB:
- NoiseXterminator on linear Ha image for noise reduction
- HistogramTransformation x3 to stretch
- CurvesTransformation for extreme contrast curve to suppress background and isolate Ha signal
- PixelMath to add Ha to LRGB
- ColorSaturation to saturate blue reflection nebulosity
Further Processing:
- CurvesTransformation for slight contrast adjustment
- HistogramTransformation x3 on RGB stars to stretch to non-linear
- Invert -> SCNR green -> invert to remove magenta from stars
- SCNR green on stars
- CurvesTransformation to saturate and bring up blue point for stars
- HistogramTransformation x2 on Luminance stars to match size of RGB stars
- LRGBCombination to combine Luminance and RGB stars with saturation at 0.35
- ColorSaturation to saturate blue stars
- PixelMath with re-linearization technique to combine stars with starless nebulosity
- NoiseXterminator for final noise reduction
- SCNR green to remove slight green tint
- MorphologicalTransformation with luminance star_mask applied for slight noise reduction
- CurvesTransformation for final green reduction/'c' curve adjustment, and contrast boost
- DynamicCrop to crop edges
- Save and export
The wake turbulence cloud, and wingtip vortices are on display as an Etihad B773 approaches Toronto's runway 33L
The #MacroMondays #Timepieces theme
Physicist Sir Arthur Eddington introduced us to The Arrow of Time. As we look into the future we see a universe which is gradually descending into disorder, expanding and cooling, ultimately to become a scattered collection of particles so far separated within an unimaginably vast nothingness that the probability of them ever again combining to create anything is zilch. That is indeed a depressing forecast of our destiny, but as the process will take about 10 trillion years (around 50x the current age of The Universe) there's no need to cancel your pro subs just yet. Conversely if we look into our past we see greater order. Ultimately we could look back to The Big Bang when The Universe was simple and very highly ordered before its unimaginably rapid expansion an instant later.
HMM all - very deep for a Monday! Sir Arthur illustrates The Second Law of Thermodynamics which holds that entropy increases with time. The entropy of a system refers to the amount of order within it. Low entropy describes a high degree of order. For example, if we conceptually reduce your home, that pile of bricks or whatever, into its constituent atoms we can imagine that only a very few arrangements of those atoms would create your home, meaning that your home is a low entropy system. Similarly a pile of beach sand has a high level of disorder, representing high entropy. A pile of sand is a pile of sand - there are very many ways the grains of sand in a pile may be arranged to create any old pile and one pile of sand is pretty much the same as any other. However, if you put some in a bucket then threw it into the air, you would be very surprised if it landed in the form of a sand castle. But it could, proven by you instead flipping the bucket over in traditional seaside fashion, giving it a tap and carefully removing it, creating your sand castle. The grains therefore can make such a thing and could therefore land in just the right places even if you threw them into the air. But there are far many more configurations that they could take (most of which are unremarkable piles) so while a sand castle magically appearing from a load of airborne sand could theoretically happen, it is a vanishingly improbable event. Functionally speaking, the probability of such an event occurring is zero. If you left a formed sand castle alone, you'd see its entropy increase as it decays into an unremarkable high entropy pile of sand. Ultimately it will become just another part of the even higher entropy beach, demonstrating, during your hard earned summer holiday, a university level physics concept. I've never done a university physics course, he hastily clarifies, but I have done some reading on it.
I should say that it has been fairly pointed out to me that this interpretation does depend on one's world view. This is mine. It's a world view which led to the manufacture of transport options to get to beaches, buckets capable of creating sand castles, cameras, the internet and probes heading to the edges of The Solar System and ultimately beyond on precisely predetermined trajectories calculated using physics, so I think it has some evidence to support it. The background of the photo is the Christian creation story, Genesis 1. That's mine too.
In creating the image, I used a plain yellow background created in Photoshop over which I added a layer of a paving stone to provide texture, reducing its opacity to allow the yellow to colour it. Genesis followed, and finally a photo of a small pocket watch which I vandalised through the wonders of Photoshop, using much tiny deleting, moving and transforming, its parts disappearing into the future as it falls into disorder, following The Arrow of Time.
A snowflake that doesn’t know what it wants to be! This intriguing snowflake has a shape that is battling between branches and a solid plate shape, and you can clearly see where the lines of battle have been drawn. View large!
As you’ve seen so far in this series, the tiniest snowflakes always have a way of being enigmatic and interesting. Maybe it’s the lack of complexity that allows us to focus on specific features, or maybe it’s that smaller snowflakes contain smaller details that we can more easily see and be curious about. In this case, there’s a mystery to solve!
The upper-right-most branch holds the story of the branching while the lower-left tells us how the crystal stays as a plate. In the former, we can identify a crystal split. The snowflake divides itself into two new planes when a cavity forms in the ice, a very common occurrence. What’s odd here is that the bottom plate grows the branch at the tip, but the rest of the bottom plate falls behind the top plate in growth. This might be a case where the knife-edge instability comes into play.
I don’t fully understand the physics (I’m a geeky photographer, not a physicist), but when a snowflake is incredibly thin, the growth can accelerate. If the bubble/cavity that cut the snowflake in half changed its thickness just at the tip, it could propel the tip into a branch-like growth without causing the same rapid growth to the rest of the crystal facets. It’s unusual, but not the first time I’ve seen it – something must behave slightly differently at the corner to evoke this behaviour.
On the other side of the snowflake, we see a very solid hexagonal shape, but the ghosts of branches are hidden closer to the center. How does this happen? Again, I’m not entirely sure. I love these mysteries! I believe the best explanation would be this: As the branches began to form, the growth of the top plate was keeping pace, likely due to the direction that the snowflake was falling. The same physics that made the branch grow faster than the edges of the underside are at play, but with more water vapour building up the top plate, it kept pace with the branching, and eventually overpowered it. As soon as any one plane of growth as the advantage of growing farther out, it chokes out the growth of the competition.
Again, my ideas are just the theories of a man who has studied snowflake growth for the fun of it, and has witnessed many thousands of these crystals to see how they grow. It’s open to interpretation – and I welcome yours!
For more musings on snowflakes and the most detailed photographic tutorial on the subject you’ll ever see, consider a copy of Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/book/ - it’s a great winter companion for any photographer or naturalist. Winter can be more tolerable when you ponder the mysteries in a single snowflake.
This is an unguided capture of M57, the Ring Nebula. Although I am an experience solar imager and do pretty well with the Moon, deep sky imaging is new to me. I am learning one step at a time.
Camera: ZWO ASI294 MC Pro
Telescope: Astro Physics 105mm refractor
Mount: Celestron AVX
Capture Software: SharpCap
Live stacked: 54 frames
Exposure time: 800 seconds