Not many entries lately as I have just attended the Starmus Festival in Tenerife. Apart from luminaries such as Neil Armstrong and Alexei Leonov being present – there was also a 2 and a half hour Tangerine Dream concert with Brian May as guest artist. A truly amazing experience all round and I will be posting some images from the Starmus week that capture the “Scientific Artist” spirit over the next few days or so.
Category Archives: News
Got today’s EPOD with a glitter shot of the Needles – Isle of Wight
Today’s EPOD (Earth Science Picture of the Day) shows a yacht passing the Needles amongst a sea of glitter. Taken from the beach at Milford on Sea. Thank you Jim for continuing to publish my work 🙂
Egypt’s Lost Cities
Did you happen to watch Egypt’s Lost Cities on BBC1 last Monday night? Infrared imaging via satellite was used to locate buried buildings/tombs in Egypt. There was also a brief appearance by John Romer. Spooky synchronicity at work here 🙂
Over 10 years ago I entered into correspondence with John Romer (sending letters to Tuscany in Italy) telling him about my idea of using infrared imaging via satellite to locate lost tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Why didn’t I just get on and do it myself? Because you need local “on the ground” knowledge to weed out the imaging artifacts (errors) as was shown in the programme.
The programme also showed that my idea from way back then works (of course) and it works pretty well too. I’m surprised they didn’t do a lot more analysis of the Valley of the Kings area though as there are known to be several unfound tombs in that region.
Structural colour
The irridescent blue seen in this macrophoto of a Morpho Rhetenor butterfly is due to structural colour – not pigment. The butterfly’s wing scales have microstructure which act like a specialised diffraction grating, so it is an interference/diffraction grating effect that gives the striking blue colour – visible over a wide range of angles. It is in fact an example of a natural photonic crystal structure – something that I researched for a few years at the University of Southampton. Possibly one of the most impressive Icons of Science meeting Art 🙂
See my 20-page Review Article titled “Biomimetically Inspired Photonic Nanomaterials” for more information.
Our regularly flowering cactus has just produced the first flower of 2011
Amazing fragrance from these flowers – wish it could be bottled 🙂
The International Space Station 25th April 2011
This will be the last one of these for a while – too much of a good thing and all that. This 4-minute crossing was captured at 9:30 p.m. on 25th April 2011 using the Canon 5D and the 15mm fisheye lens. ISO 100, f#8 and “bulb” exposure. Do continue looking up for the ISS however, it will be good (skies permitting) at least up until 5th May 2011.
Today’s Earth Science Picture of the Day [EPOD] is my Mercury & Jupiter twilight shot:
Today’s EPOD is my Mercury and Jupiter twilight shot taken on 17th April 2011. Thank you Jim for publishing this one 🙂
This is my 29th EPOD to date.
Simon Parkin introduces the Leo Trio to Meridian TV viewers
Last night (4th April 2011) Simon Parkin showed the Leo Trio of galaxies as the weather picture on his weather slot on Meridian TV News and Weather. Video footage Copyright Meridian TV News and Weather. Please view the video here.
SuperMoon 19th March 2011
Here’s an image of tonight’s so-called SuperMoon as it was about to clear the tree tops down the road.
Didn’t look any different to a “normal” full Moon to me 🙂
Jupiter and Mercury image on Meridian Weather 14th March 2011
The recent Jupiter and Mercury close encounter that I imaged over the New Forest made an appearance on Simon Parkin’s Weather slot on Meridian TV on the 14th March 2011. Video footage Copyright Meridian TV.