Starship Asterisk*

Solstice Sun at Lulworth Cove

Explanation: A southern exposure and striking symmetry made Lulworth Cove, along the Jurassic Coast of England, planet Earth a beautiful setting during this December's Solstice. Five frames in this dramatic composite view follow the lowest arc of the Sun, from sunrise to sunset, during the shortest day of the year. The solstice arc spans about 103 degrees at this northern latitude. Of course, erosion by wave action has produced the cove's remarkable shape in the coastal limestone layers. The cove's narrow entrance is responsible, creating a circular wave diffraction pattern made clearer by a low sun angle.

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That's a nice looking cove.

Stunning composition and strange anomolies on the right of the frame look like the floaters I sometimes get in my eyes.

Math, physics, astonomy, and beauty.

Oh, that's a stunning image! Absolutely incredibly beautiful!

So glad to see this image become an APOD!!

Ann

Same image was used as EPOD a few days ago,
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2015/12/winte ... gland.html

ionh wrote:Same image was used as EPOD a few days ago,
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2015/12/winte ... gland.html

Yes indeed! My morning ritual is to look at both. It is always interesting to think about the differences between the two. Of course APOD is far superior, because it is the Universe, and not just some particular (though cute) planet somewhere; but above all because we are allowed to express ourselves: show off, and/or, make fools of ourselves!

I hadn't noticed the diffraction phenomenon at first look at all.
That makes the beautiful image a lot more interesting!

So good they showed it twice!

Is the diffraction pattern responsible for the regular sand/shingle humps along the left hand shore?

John

Better, "bars and rips" in the shoreline sand. Several papers describe these along straight shorelines, without a continual wave diffraction cause. EG: http://upcommons.upc.edu/bitstream/hand ... D+i_AF.pdf J.

Very Omegan! How appropriate a setting and the last APOD of the year.

"Omegan"? In what sense, apart from the obvious but meaningless similarity to the Greek letter?

John

I'd like to learn more about the technique that M. Kotsiopoulos used to stitch together the five photos. Both the pattern of clouds and the pattern of waves look natural and without noticeable boundaries; yet, the glare of the sun through the clouds and over the water, as well as the shadows of the hills, clearly indicate that different parts of the picture come from different photos. How was that accomplished? This is not only a beautiful picture, it's also a truly remarkable technical accomplishment!

JohnD wrote:"Omegan"? In what sense, apart from the obvious but meaningless similarity to the Greek letter?

John

It's quite a significant term used in cosmology and is the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

Thank you all for your kind words!

gva wrote:I'd like to learn more about the technique that M. Kotsiopoulos used to stitch together the five photos. Both the pattern of clouds and the pattern of waves look natural and without noticeable boundaries; yet, the glare of the sun through the clouds and over the water, as well as the shadows of the hills, clearly indicate that different parts of the picture come from different photos. How was that accomplished? This is not only a beautiful picture, it's also a truly remarkable technical accomplishment!

Gva, the technique is simple. Five stacked photos with the Sun in different positions. The only side effect was that some close distant objects (grass, shoreline, hills) where dark and/or fussy. The solution was to selectively apply these elements from a sixth over-exposed shot taken at noon.
- Startrails.de for the stacking.
- Photoshop CS5 for the rest of the process (blending the sixth photo, brightness, contrast, color balance, sharpness).

Regards,

Chris.

Mandelbrot fractal?

At first I thought that was a piece of CGI art.

The wave diffraction means the waves strike exactly perpendicular to the beach, creating an ideal situation for rips. Rips, not rip tides, are narrow return currents flowing off a beach. If they're big, they can carry swimmers out beyond their swimming range. The small ones here are harmless, though I'd keep an eye on toddlers and pets. You can see where they've eroded shallow troughs in the sand, and the returning water is pushing back the wave fronts.

Thank you for that explanation ChrisKotsiopoulos and congratulations for a beautiful and interesting image.

And thank you to APOD for the wonderful site and to those who contribute to the interesting discussions here on the Asterisk forum. And a special thanks to Chris, Art, Ann and the other regulars here. I always enjoy and learn from the comments and discussions.

Like many others, I visit APOD every day. I appreciate the images for their beauty and also for the opportunitity to learn about and marvel at the universe near and far. It is good for my sanity in the midst of often hectic workdays

Have a happy new year everyone!

Very interesting and nice looking.

I would call it....Clam Shell Cove...

Happy New Year to all my fellow APODers....best wishes for the New Year...

:---[===] *

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:

JohnD wrote:"Omegan"? In what sense, apart from the obvious but meaningless similarity to the Greek letter?

John

It's quite a significant term used in cosmology and is the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

OK, with that pointer, I find that 'Omega' is "the ratio between the energy density due to the cosmological constant and the critical density of the universe, the tipping point for a sufficient density to stop the universe from expanding forever." (Wiki article, Cosmological Constant). And in that sense, what has it to do with a geographical feature? That just happens to resemble an Ω?

And what about those bars 'n' rips? Due to diffraction?

John

Mimicking a line from Christmas Vacation, Clark's dad says it perfectly about today's APOD.

I'm confused as to the date when the sequence of the Sun's positions were taken. In the image's explanation in the Earth Science Picture of the Day website it states "Note that this sequence was captured on December 20, 2015 -- the date of the solstice was December 22 in Europe". However, in the information with the image brought up through the “Five frames” link it states “Shooting Date/Time 21/12/2015 aprox 08:00 – 16:00”. The image showing the sequence and location is though excellent .

Stunning and informative image. I love it when science and art collide.