trainor@ucla-cs.UUCP (12/29/86)
< I know this one is too late, but I disappeared without notice
before this showed up. Sorry to botch the experiment. ER. >
Throughout the evening of December 21st, Sunday-Monday, you are
asked to participate in an experiment. The interesting thing is
that not participating is participating. Ok, so go outside in
the dark and look up. It's simple. Stare at your favorite star,
constellation, or whatever. Stare until your eyes start flaking-out
on you. You may notice a change of shape and color in what you
are looking at. For shape, I have listed eight possibilities below.
For color, you may notice a sequence of transitions to and from the
set of "colors" { white red green blue black }. White is you basic
white, but may include your normal atmospheric tints towards red,
orange, yellow, and blue. The reds, greens, and blues are deep
saturated colors. Black is just "no star", i.e. it turned off.
a b c d
+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
| . . | ! ! | o o | , , |
| . . | ! ! | o o | , , |
| | | | |
| . . | ! ! | o o | , , |
| . . | ! ! | o o | , , |
| | | | |
+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
e f g h
+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
| x x | * * | : : | - - |
| x x | * * | : : | - - |
| | | | |
| x x | * * | : : | - - |
| x x | * * | : : | - - |
| | | | |
+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
For non-symmetric configurations, rotations and reflections are the same.
Descriptions:
-------------
a) normal stars, just points of light
b) stars with long whisps
c) little donut-like hoops
d) stars with little tails or teardrops
e) little crosses
f) circular blobs
g) split stars, very close to one another
h) tiny slits or discs
Have fun. Reply if you feel like it.
Douglas
ARPA: trainor@locus.ucla.edu
UUCP: ..!{sch-loki,silogic,randvax,ihnp4,sdcrdcf,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!trainor
SNAKE: trainor@eric.sidewinder.snake