Rainbows and Glorys

[Matthew Cissell]

Hello Everybody,
 
    First, a belated Happy New Year (unless you go by some other calendar).
 
    Some time back somebody posted a link to a photo of a Brockenbgespenstphänomen (a concept TP makes use of in GR - Episode 4 with Slothrop on top of Brocken). It came to my mind as I read an article in the Jan. issue of Scientific American. "The Science of the Glory" by H. Moises Nussenzweig might prove interesting to some of you and comes along with some great images. 
    The fact that this phenomena is called a glory puts the ending of AtD in a different light. Nussenzweig writes: "Scholars have often suggested  that the halo around the heads of deities and emperors and western iconography may have been resprestentations of a glory." Although the author probably wasn't thinking about TP's work, it makes a nice fit with things others have mentioned i.e Chums of Chance, angels,etc.
    Oh, he also writes: "It [the glory] is most striking when the clouds are closest because then it dominates the whole horizon." 
    The parts in the article about refraction and reflection and diffraction also make me think anew about the iceland spar.
 
Enjoy your Janus month
ciao
MC