Cross Polarisation

So,if you shine polarized light at something made out of plastic, you can see the stresses in the material as iridescence. If you then take a photograph of that with a camera with a polarizing filter on it, then you get this picture here on the left. Complicated, but pretty :)

Writing Music Is Fun!

Robots Are Friends

I was in a particularly geeky mood, so I made a spotify playlist about called Robots are friends, not surprisingly about robots :)

Astronomy

Telescope: 135mm Reflector, 10mm Eyepeice
Location: Out of my flat window
Saw the ISS with the naked eye and just about caught a glimpse of it through my telescope, could just about make out a little bit of structure.
Saw the satellite AJISAI (EGS) with the naked eye. Lovely deep bronze colour.
First Vega came out, then Alitair. Made out Cygnus, and about half of Draco. Eventually saw ε Peg (Nose of Pegasus). Later saw Juptier, and could make out Europa and Ganymede. Saw the moon, it was a waxing cresent, so could only see the edge, but managed to identify "Mare Crisium", "Mare Fecunditatis", "Mare Nectaris" and "Mare Tranquillitatis" (or "The Sea of Crises", "The Sea of Fecundity", "The Sea of Nectar" and "The Sea of Tranquillity". Also identified the Metius Crater" and the "Fabricius Crater". Camera: 3.2 MP Fuji S5000 held to 2x Eyepiece. As not to bore the whole world to death, I am starting a second blog just containing my observations at http://alecjcook-astronomy.blogspot.com/