mat@hou5d.UUCP (M Terribile) (02/26/84)
Sorry for the double posting, but this is just too good! National Geographic magazine provides us with what looks like a first: A HOLOGRAPHIC cover! Not a picture of a hologram, but the hologram itself. The area usually occupied by the picture is filled with a blue field, and just above dead center is a shiny metallic rectangle. A caption informs us that it is a hologram, and with a little fiddling around, we can find a couple of planes in which to look at it. The shininess disappears and we are looking through a dark window at a statue of an eagle. Two articles cover lasers and holography, and the working hologram is on the cover. It is a ``tricked-up'' hologram designed to work well in white light at the expense of vertical image change, and it seems to need a point source; fluorescent office lighting probably won't work. But it is a hologram, and it is on the cover. The first article's teaser informs us that the carbon dioxide atmosphere of Mars lases; driven by solar energy, the planet is bathed in coherent infra-red. Can any astronomers on the net tell us more? Now, for any laser experts, take a careful look at the photo on page 342. It looks as though a rectangular beam is passing through a bunch of parallel smoke layers, or something with a similar effect. Is this photo real or retouched? How could such an image be photographed? Lastly, does anyone know of a really good group for this? Suggestions about XXX.laser-lovers should be sent to net.jokes (really). Mark Terribile hou5d!mat Duke Of deNet