Exploring the Science of Light
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The Sun in three colors of ultraviolet light

The Sun in three colors of ultraviolet light

The Sun in three colors of ultraviolet light. Only active regions emit significant energetic ultraviolet light, so the colorful portions pinpoint the Sun’s hottest and most violent areas. The solar emission of visible light has been relatively stable over the past five billion years.

— TRACE Project
Stanford-Lockheed Institute for Space Research, NASA

Infrared filter photo

Infrared filter photo

This photo was taken through the infrared filter B+W IR093, which blocks visible light. Bright glow from sun-illuminated leaves and grass (Wood effect) is caused by strong reflection of IR light from plant cell walls.

— Andriy Rybas’
Finalist in a photo contest organized by the V. Karazin Kharkov National University OSA Student Chapter

UV fluorescent plastic

UV fluorescent plastic

An object made from UV fluorescent plastics, which are often used for making glow sticks, signs and interior décor. The object is illuminated by ultraviolet light (also known as “dark light”) and emits light in the visible range.

— Andriy Rybas’
Finalist in a photo contest organized by the V. Karazin Kharkov National University OSA Student Chapter

Moth forewing

Moth forewing

Close-up view of scales from a moth’s forewing, captured using Nomarski interference contrast illumination.

— Thomas Eisner
Cornell University

Icy crown for a desert palm tree

Icy crown for a desert palm tree

This photo, third place winner in OPN’s 2006 After Image Photo Contest, shows an icy crown for a desert palm tree. The 22 degree halo is caused by reflection and refraction of sunlight in ice crystals making up cirrus clouds in the Arizona desert.

— Joseph A. Shaw, Director
Optical Technology Center at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT

Macrobrachium amazonicum

Macrobrachium amazonicum

Pupil of a Macrobrachium amazonicum (freshwater shrimp) magnified 20 times.

— Alex H. Griman, São Paulo, Brazil
11th Place, Nikon Small World Competition 2006

False-color composite

False-color composite

Ephemeral Lake Carnegie in Western Australia fills with water only during periods of significant rainfall. In dry years it is reduced to a muddy marsh. This is a false-color composite image made using shortwave infrared, infrared and red wavelengths. The image has also been sharpened using the sensor’s panchromatic band.

— Landsat 7’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) sensor
NASA, May 19, 1999

Sombrero galaxy

Sombrero galaxy

In May-June 2003, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured the Sombrero galaxy, Messier 104 (M104). The galaxy’s hallmark is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes. As seen from Earth, the galaxy is tilted nearly edge-on. Here, it is viewed just six degrees north of its equatorial plane. M104 was nicknamed the Sombrero because of its resemblance to the Mexican hat. It is located 28 million light-years from Earth at the southern edge of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Images were taken in red, green and blue filters to yield a natural-color image. Six images were merged to create this composite.

— NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Diatom: Arachnoidiscus ehrenbergi

Diatom: Arachnoidiscus ehrenbergi

This darkfield photomicrograph of the diatom Arachnoidiscus ehrenbergi was captured on an Olympus microscope. The specimen was illuminated with a high numerical aperture darkfield condenser with immersion oil placed between the microscope slide and the objective and condenser front lenses. Diatoms have a silicified cell wall that forms a pillbox-like shell (frustule) composed of overlapping halves.

— Mortimer Abramowitz, Michael W. Davidson, Olympus America Inc. and The Florida State University

Crepuscular rays

Crepuscular rays

Sweeping crepuscular rays created by cloud shadows in scattered sunlight. The skylight is darker in the shadow regions, where clouds block much of the illuminating sunlight. The rays are all effectively parallel, but appear to sweep outward because of perspective. Sometimes you can see crepuscular rays continue across the sky to the opposite horizon, where they appear to converge to the anti-solar point.

— Joseph A. Shaw, Bozeman, MT

Geranium flower

Geranium flower

Geranium flower (20x), captured using microscopy and digital photography. The photographer removed the microscope stage and connected a special attachment that allowed him to rotate the flower in any angle. He then inserted a fiber-optic line into a medical syringe to illuminate the flower from four angles.

— Dr. Shumel Silberman, Ramat Gan, Israel

Camera toss

Camera toss

Sheets and Strikes No. 51 —True color digital photograph of blue plasma light, captured by a camera that was tossed horizontally with lens axis rotation.

— Ryan Gallagher, Artist & Photographer, Austin, TX
www.kineticphotography.net
cameratoss.blogspot.com

Flower beetle: Plusiotus beyeri

Flower beetle: Plusiotus beyeri

U.S. flower beetle Plusiotus beyeri and its reflection in a plane mirror as photographed by Sam Lowrey, a fifth-year physics student at the University of Otago, New Zealand. When a filter for left-circular polarization is used (upper), the beetle appears green but its reflection is dark. With a filter for right-circular polarization (lower), the beetle appears dark with a green reflection. The mirror inverts the sense of circular polarization.

— Ian Hodgkinson

Polyethylene folio

Polyethylene folio

Deformation of a polyethylene folio, 40x polarized light.

— Zdenka Jenikova, Czech Technical University Prague, Czech Republic

Impact crater on Mars

Impact crater on Mars

A pair of visible-wavelength images together with numerous infrared ones created this false-color Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft view that captures part of an impact crater on Mars. The colors portray the overnight surface temperatures: bluer colors indicate cold places, redder tints warm ones.

— NASA/JPL/ASU
www.nasa.gov

Cloud Gate

Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor

Cloud Gate sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor near the entry to Chicago’s Millennium Park. It has become affectionately known to Chicagoans as “the Bean.” This is the view while looking up from under the Bean.

— Alice Markham
OSA Publications Department

Emodin

Emodin

Emodin, an orange-red crystalline substance (C15H10O5), obtained from rhubarb, melted with allobarbital (50x) using polarized light.

— Lars Bech
Naarden, The Netherlands

Three-wavelength laser point spread function

Three-wavelength laser point spread function

A three-wavelength laser on an optical bench is used to turn a strong positive single lens with its plane surface towards the laser, off axis and at a large field angle. The point spread function displays strong aberrations, especially lateral chromatic aberration and coma.

— Klaus Biedermann and Göran Manneberg

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