Tree sex makes colored rings in the sky – Yesterday, I observed pollen coronas around the sun and the moon.

These colorful rings appear around the sun / the moon when airborne pollen diffracts the light (=deflects it depending on its color).

Different pollen types make different coronas. Here, it is likely pine pollen.

pic 1 at 14:08 CEST, f=200 mm, sun covered by street lamp.

pic 2 at 22:27 CEST, f=200 mm, moon overexposed

Very nice pollen based atmospheric optics.

Last night I observed a pollen corona around the bright moon. These colored rings around the moon are created when its light is refracted by airborne pollen.

Depending on the type of pollen, different ring shapes and sizes appear. This one is probably from pine pollen.

Image: 22:53 CEST | f=300 mm | aperture 5.6 | ISO 1250 | 0.5 s

Science is also made by people and these make organizations that outlive them. For those interested in the boundary between documentaries, history and science:

"Reflections on the first 50 years of the Society of Crystallographers in Australia and New Zealand" by Roderick J Hill is now available on Amazon & related. Paperback for less than £15 /AUD$53

#Australia #ozxtals #BushCrystallographers #SCANZ #crystallography #diffraction #braggslaw @ActaCrystF

Is there a good public database of x-ray diffraction for chemical compounds? #chemistry #diffraction #science #molecularstructure

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright

CC BY-SA Kate Zimmerman

Why do stars have spikes? Not only did I find out, but I found out how to PREVENT them:
YouTube Demonstration: youtu.be/0StgQCw5oco

Beautiful morning today, with nacreous clouds thanks to a wave of moisture being pushed into the stratosphere!

See them from about 20s into this dawn timelapse film...
#nacreousClouds #diffraction #optics #sky #timelapse
https://youtu.be/UC70NvW35m0?si=rXAdNkxtP4xmowhu

"We illustrate the potential of these concepts by fabricating #nanostructures that are impossible to make with any other known method: #waveguide-coupled high-Q silicon photonic cavities that confine telecom #photons to 2 nm air gaps with an aspect ratio of 100, corresponding to mode volumes more than 100 times below the #diffraction limit. Scanning transmission electron microscopy measurements confirm the ability to build devices with sub-nanometre dimensions."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06736-8

Playing with #diffraction

#SciComHero, category: #diffraction crumbs.
---
RT @girlscientist
Brought in the backup key lime pie to share with my other office today. Bonus points to nerds who can guess the picture drawn with crushed Oreos on top.
https://twitter.com/girlscientist/status/1636031931019063296

Filing this one under #urbanDetails and #physics.

I *think* those are #diffraction colours, but I'm not 100% confident they're not a #refraction thing.

Just realised a photo of the reflections in an equally scratched bus shelter windows ought to be able to settle the question...

I made this #short on single slit diffraction.
https://youtube.com/shorts/39scypOgiPk?feature=share #physics #alevelphysics #diffraction #singslit

Inhouse #structbio #xray #diffraction this afternoon. Three projects.
1) Hmm, those "spots" are very smeary, as before
2) A couple of interesting, but probably protein, spots from @xtaldave 's small crystals, so off to #DLS_MX #synchrotron they go.
3) Ohhh, better than 1.9 Å, so lets collect a quick dataset before sending off to #synchrotron.

Ice forming in a wetlands marsh in a pine grove and diffraction #OpticalPhenomena.

Hi everyone
This is our first post, so time for an #introduction.
We are STOE, a company solely dedicated to manufacturing single crystal and powder X-ray diffractometers. Our instruments are of the highest quality and since we keep everything from R&D to production in house, we are happy to not only offer solutions off the shelf, but also design instruments precisely to our customers needs.
Follow us here for the latest news from #STOE HQ!
#XRD #diffraction #crystallography

Plants employ chemical engineering to manufacture bee-luring optical devices
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-employ-chemical-bee-luring-optical-devices.html

Cuticle #chemistry drives the development of #diffraction gratings on the #Hibiscus trionum petals https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01713-4

While most #flowers produce pigments, some flowers also create microscopic 3D patterns on their petal surfaces. These striations reflect particular wavelengths of light to produce an iridescent #optical effect that is not always visible to humans, yet visible to #bees.

Lily pads trapped in a thin layer of ice in the #marsh,
evergreen #grove,
#geometric pond ice and
bright colorful #mosses,
beautiful #diffraction #phenomena on this #trail in CT, USA 34°F
#Nature #NewEngland #Forest #Wetlands #Ecosystems #Hiking #observation