3-day Sale!

Starts 12am tonight folks, till my current stocks last :)

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Belling the Cat

Belling the Cat

Belling the cat' was one childhood fable that intrigued me growing up. It's also called 'The Conference of Mice' sometimes. I always assumed it was an Aesop fable because it was in my big Aesop book but a trip to Wikipedia quickly disabused me. It's so interesting that the fable is so old. Makes me wonder how long humans have been putting belled collars on cats really...

:)
I wanted to draw my own take on it...

Celestial Tricks

It was actually around ten years ago when I wandered out one Autumn night, and happening to look up into the evening sky saw what seemed to be a giant luminous circle etched into the sky above me. No clouds were visible, it didn't move, and was at such an angle from the moon as to not even seem to be involved with it at all. A magic circle.

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Like that one. Though not actually that, as I had no camera then that could capture the effect, and the circle I saw was much wider, a bit thicker, and no clouds were visible. I tried to explain it later to people, who tried to tell me it was clouds, or light pollution or some manmade light show but I was like nuh-uh, this was otherworldly, it had to be. This had to be supernatural.

Though of course it was nothing of the sort. It was in fact what is known it is the rare phenomenon known as a paraselenic halo, and one of the many glorious quirks of atmospheric optics you could be lucky enough to see.

 On a long night drive back on the highway last week, I saw another interesting moon halo (this time the less rare 22degree halo) and it jogged the old memory. Researching atmospheric optics led me to identify other queer phenomena I've unknowingly observed over the years and had no name or explanation for. One such was a supernumery rainbow I'd seen one late Summer two years back, arcing over fields and mountains in Cork, Ireland.



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 Pretty trippy, no? Again, not my actual photo, I never managed to capture it on my camera, but it did look a lot like that.

Here's an awesome site I am RSS too. It's 'Optics Picture Of The Day', where you can get a daily dose of photgraphed phenomena from all over the world. These come with scientific explanations too, all in one spot, and some diagrams for extra awesomeness. I loved seeing pictures of mirages and optical tricks I'd never even heard of before, like moon bows and green flash.


Noctilucent Clouds, source

So many myths, ghosts, miracles and religious attributes (like the halos of holy people, check out the Brocken Spectre) can be explained as simple natural physics. But its not hard to imagine why in an age where the laws of optics hadn't been sussed out,  phenomena as random, rare and queer as this was in turn feared and revered. Cultures as developed as those of ancient Egypt and South America attributed deities to things like rainbows and the sun, 'phenomena' which most school-age children in our days can explain away quickly. (or I sure as hell hope so).

It was not hard at all to tap into that early wonder, though, when I saw that paraselenic halo years ago, and have to shrug and resign to not understand the mystery.

Make It Mag

Gave this interview to MakeItMag, have a look

Empty Nest

'Some would think me blessed
to have an empty nest -
But all I do,
My Egg,
is think of you'

 
A visual to one of my 20-word-story/poems.

Print here.