Mercury transiting the Sun – 9 May 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden

What a day. Incredible to watch one of our neighbouring planet block out some of the Sun’s light. Mercury is the small round dot below and to the left of the plane. The biggest sunspots are above and to the left of the plane, but some small ones near Mercury too. The shadow of the telescope frames the shot.

 

Here is another…

 

Here the clouds and Mercury, sunspots and the Sun and my shadow too.

 

Mercury is just at the lower edge late in its transit. A whole planet – just a dot on the face of the sun. Nice clouds too. So this is a portrait of Earth, Mercury and the Sun together!

 

False colour image to show the disc of Mercury

 

All photographs copyright Robert Corkery 2016

Northern Lights – Stockholm 17 March 2013

Northern Lights – Aurora borealis over Stockholm, 17 March 2013

Transit of Venus, 2012 Stockholm

Primate vision IV

Hötorget Market Stockholm

Mälaren algal bloom composition I

Algal bloom Norr Mälarstrand Lake Mälaren Stockholm 9 October 2010

Emergence of Order II

"Emergence of Order II". Photographic reproduction of original painting. Copyright 2006 Robert Corkery. 80 cm x 80 cm. Acrylic on linen. Red, yellow and white paint applied with a stick in the manner of an Australian aboriginal dot painting. The inspiration for the original work came from the complicated curved and interconnected tunnel structure and surfaces defining the inside of termite mounds. Mathematically these structures can be described in the same geometric language used to describe the huge network of inner membranes in the organelles of living cells, soap bubbles, punctured surfaces of complex black holes and therefore shape of spacetime itself including its strings. The language of differential geometry and topology is used to formally describe these surfaces and their inherent curvature. When Einstein read that Riemann introduced a concept that distance at any point in space changes depending on the distribution of matter in it, led him to a search for a geometric theory of gravity beginning around 1912 and three years later to celebrated general theory of relativity. The way that matter moves is determined by the curvature of the space. So the existence of forces in the universe is equivalent to the existence of curvature. The particular pattern in this painting was generated in a computer simulation using a 3D random Gaussian field of waves and then taking a cross section through it. The computer generated pattern was printed out onto gridded paper, and then I hand drew the pattern from the paper onto canvas. Dots of pure red, yellow and white were then applied to the canvas, painstakingly over several months. The patterns that emerged were not planned and surprised me as they became ordered, particularly as the painting proceded. This emergence of order is reminescent of the emergence of order in the evolution of the termite mound structure over geological time and over the lifetime of an individual nest. It mimics the order emerging in Nature due to evolutionary processes. This painting is the second dot painting in a series made on this topic. The first was destroyed in a deliberately lit apartment fire in New York City a few years ago. But a photograph remains!. The same type of pattern was used in the "oil spill" and "random Gaussian field" digitally created pieces posted earlier on this website.

Ripple waves, dock and sailboat – Mefjärd island Stockholm archipelago

Pyrotechnics over Långholmen – I

Fireworks make the clouds glow red after the first of three concerts by Lars Winnerbäck at Långholmen Stockholm 2010

Långholmen sunset silhouette

Långholmen sunset 22 July 2010.