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These photos of nuclear explosions were taken one ten-millionth of a second after detonation

May 2, 2016 by Udi Tirosh 3 Comments

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Plumbbob_Boltzmann_003

If taking photos of speeding bullets is hard, imagine how hard it is to take photos of a nuclear bomb going off. (I mean aside the obvious issue of having yourself and the camera being completely decimated if you were at any reasonable distance).

I mean, if you developed a nuclear bomb, you wanna see how it works, right? Well the fire call created by the explosion was created so fast and expanded so rapidly that it was virtually impossible to capture. That is until professor Harold Eugene “Doc” Edgerton of MIT invented the Rapatronic Camera.

That camera is quite an achievement in today’s terms, and nothing short of a miracle for 1940’s. The Rapatronic Camera (short for rapid action electronic camera), as damn interesting notes is a

single-use cameras were able to snap a photo one ten-millionth of a second after detonation from about seven miles away, with an exposure time of as little as ten nanoseconds. At that instant, a typical fireball had already reached about 100 feet in diameter, with temperatures three times hotter than the surface of the sun

Impressive isn’t it? How was it done?

Of course, capturing 10 nano-seconds of light is not something you can do with moving part. But even worse, if you wanted to capture a series of those photos, there is no way you can move the film fast enough. So, just like the famous horse from those early film days, several cameras were positioned and tuned to different intervals after detonation.

Muybridge_race_horse_animated

Damn interesting explains the mechanism of the camera, which is very similar to using a circular polerizer, only instead of torating the filter, they rotated the light:

The rapatronic camera lens included two perpendicular polarizers, which prevented any light from entering… but sandwiched in between them was a Kerr cell. When the Kerr cell was energized, it affected all of the light which passed through the first polarizer by rotating its plane of polarization by 90°, realigning the light to match the second polarizer. This allowed the light to pass through both polarizers whenever the Kerr cell was provided with electricity, which is exactly what was done for 10 nanoseconds at the critical moment

Wikipedia provides a big collection of those hellish balls of fire (photos by Federal Government of the United States [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Atombombentest_Greenhouse-George Operation_Upshot-Knothole_-_Harry Rapatronic_Picture_002 Rapatronic_Picture_007 Rapatronic_Picture_009 Redwing_Mohawk_007 Trinity_Test_Fireball_25ms

[damn interesting via reddit]

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Related posts:

US Copyright Office: Photos Taken by Animals Have No Copyright. Nor Do Photos Taken by God. Animated photos from Fukushima show how abrupt its evacuation was after nuclear disaster The ten-second reminder for successfully retouching photos of people Handheld mini explosions at 20,000fps are absolutely beautiful

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Harold Eugene Edgerton, high speed, high speed photography, nuclear explosion, Rapatronic Camera

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.net

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

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Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

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