Thursday, June 26, 2008

Green Flash and more

I'm still battling with Mathematica too much to write much, though we've had some more great lectures. Nima Arkani-Hamed has given us a great crash-course on LHC physics, which may be available from another school online, so I'll try and dig that out if I can.

In the meantime we've been having some stunning evenings here and so I took the opportunity to take a couple of rather surreal dusk shots, including this 30 second exposure:
beach at dusk

The real excitement for me, however, came when I caught this image (Warning, very very large). It's my first ever capture of the Green Flash, and though it's perhaps the weakest green flash ever caught on camera, it's definitely there. This green flash came from a mock mirage sunset which is created when the temperature as a function of the height in the atmosphere becomes non-monotonic and develops a turning point. See an explanation here. Just before the green flash I caught an image of the separation which is somewhat easier to see, here:
separation
Click for a larger size!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is pictures like these that make you "Wish you were here"

Unknown said...

Hi Jake, it was stunning there, eating in the restaurant, looking out over the sunset. On the other hand, working like crazy when you have a beach 5 minutes walk from where you are is seriously trying!