After Images
The beauty of light, as seen on the last page of each OPN issue
Galactic Tapestry
Threads of superheated gas and magnetic fields weave a tapestry of energy at the center of the Milky Way galaxy in this image created with a giant mosaic of data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.
—X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT
01 Apr 2024
Soft tissue illuminated by a headlight
Soft tissue (leg) contact-illuminated by an LED-panel headlight. The red hue results from lower tissue attenuation at that longer wavelength causing red light to re-emit. The yellow is due to stronger surface scattering and the greater spectral intensity of the LED in the yellow band. The staggered strips of red and yellow arise from the abnormality of the image stabilization of the iPhone 6S camera.
—Daqing (Daching) Piao, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
01 Mar 2024
The curved surface of a glass of tea
The curved surface of a glass of tea and the liquid within refract and focus sunlight into a bright, concentrated spot, which diffuses into an amber-tinted conical shape. The glass also acts as a prism, creating a miniature dispersion effect along the light pattern’s edges that results in a boomerang-like rainbow.
—Vahid Abbasian, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
01 Feb 2024
Fireworks
Fireworks viewed through the combination of a phone and a cylindrical glass create a prismatic effect, with vibrant patterns generated from reflection and refraction of the light. Image taken with a Motorola Edge 20 Lite.[OPN 2023 Photo Contest]
—Edgar Guevara, CONAHCYT-UASLP, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
01 Jan 2024
Dichroic Filters
A row of consecutive dichroic filters is obliquely illuminated by a circular white torchlight, creating a diverse range of colors. A Huawei P30 smartphone camera in macro mode was positioned at the rectangular entrance (3 × 10 mm) with a strong tilt, providing a unique perspective.[OPN 2023 Photo Contest Editors’ Choice]
—Aliaksei Kobylinskiy and Robert Brunner, Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule Jena, Jena, Germany
01 Dec 2023
A Dinosaur Bone
A dinosaur bone in transmitted light under a polychromatic polarization microscope with a 4× objective lens and illuminating white polarized light with a spectral fan of polarization ellipses (nature.com/articles/srep17340). Image size 2.1 mm × 1.6 mm.[OPN 2022 After Image Photo Contest]
—Michael Shribak, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA; Specimen provided by Bernardo Cesare, Padua University, Italy
01 Nov 2023
Laser Scattering photo
A 1064-nm laser scattering in a research setup photographed with a 4 MP digital CCD camera. The brightest upper spot is the beam blocked by black cardboard, and the lower spots are from optical components.
—Dirk Voigt, Ministry of Defence, Netherlands
01 Oct 2023
Comet-like green laser
A comet-like green laser beam passes through a Ti:Sapphire crystal, leaving beautiful diffraction spikes in its path.
—Vinícius P. Pinto, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
01 Sep 2023
Infrared ultrafast laser
An intense infrared ultrafast laser focuses in a low-vacuum dusty plasma chamber. The formed supercontinuum light then scatters off the dust in the background.
—Ratul Sabui, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, West Bengal, India
01 Jul 2023
White light from a lamp
The objective lens of a digital projector is illuminated with white light from a lamp. The interaction of light propagating through the lenses and separating into different colors is captured by a mobile-phone camera.
—Yareli Navarro-Martínez, Erika Nohemí Hernández-Escobar and Miguel Ángel Bello-Jiménez, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico
01 Jun 2023
