Blog Archives
Goat Willow Seed Corona
Around noon on April 22, 2011 (Good Friday), I went to a hedge near Limburg (Hesse, Germany). As the weather was sunny and dry, some goat willows (Salix caprea) sent a large amount of seeds into the spring air. Together with the bright mid day sunshine, these caused some surprising effects. Often there was just one bright area around the sun (1–2–3), but from time to time a colourful corona appeared in the seeds.
Author: Gerrit Rudolph, Hesse, Germany
Intense colours of a light refraction on fireweed seeds
This year the season of my firweed-hunt began earlier than last year because in hope of a better lightrefraction on early seeds. It was about mid-july when I saw the first seeds falling and I was very surprised when i moved the seeds beetween the sun and my camera. The effect was extremely strong. I guess this came from the fresh seeds, they were not sticked together like last year and showed real bright colours. I shot about 20 pictures and afterwards I went alomost crazy when I saw these intense clours on my PC. The pictures (1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8) were taken with a Canon EOS 350D and a Tamron AF 70-300mm Makro lense near Langgoens in Germany.
Author: Rolf Kohl, Langgöns, Germany
Light refraction on Fireweed-seeds
While testing my new Tamron AFR70/300 on several plants and flowers I passed a very steep slope overgrown with fireweeds.The sun was relatively low above the slope that I noticed a silky lustre beetween the seeds. As more I was moving the plants beewenn me and the sun, the effect merged into an incredible refraction of light on the silky like seeds. I shot a few pictures and those which where slighty off focus showed very bright colours. This effect seems to be similar with light refraction on spider-webs. In this case though colous where extremely bright.
Mysterious colours in the thistle seed
Helga Schöps searches ardently for color dispersion effects in nature (like this close up of the banded diffraction pattern). Rainbows are not the only source. Helga photographed these recently at Hermsdorf, Thüringen, Germany. One is evidently a partial rainbow produced by dew drops on the fine hairy structure. The other colours in the thistle seed heads are more mysterious. Do you have an explanation?
Authors: Claudia Hinz & Les Cowley
Atmospheric Phenomena 
