The Intersection of Art and Science Fall 2017

Mt. Wilson History and Discoveries The Mount Wilson Observatory was founded by George Ellery Halle. The Observatory was originally a station for the yerkes Observatory, but was soon acquired and funded by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. With the addition of a physics laboratory and administrative and maintenance office in Pasadena, the Mt. Wilson Observatory was first comprehensive observatory complex in the world. Halle was an astronomer who discovered magnetic fields in sunspots and helped create the 60 inch Hale telescope and 100 inch Hooker telescope which are located on Mt. Wilson.The Hale telescope was finished in 1908 and was the largest telescope in the world until the creation of the 100 inch Hooker telescope which was remained the largest telescope in the world from 1917 through 1949. In 1949 the Palomar Observatory telescope was finished in San Diego, and was the new largest telescope. Until the Palomar Observatory, Mt. Wilson was reigned as the epicenter of a...

Optical illusions are when your brain is perceiving what you are seeing as something different than what is actually in front of you. They show you that you don't always see what your brain is telling you, you are seeing. They are about how your brain perceives information, not about how your eye sees an actual image. Despite the name "optical illusions” which leads you to believe that the illusion is in the eye, it is all in your brain; for this reason, scientist Michael Bach says that they should be called visual illusions. A person’s observation is proven to be subjective by optical illusions.  Not all optical illusions are made within the confines of real life but some are made within the eye itself. There is an optical illusion called 'floaters' which is where small specks, shadows, or spots seemingly are floating in the air. Not all are seen as dark spot but to some people these areas are white. This happens because some irregularity in eye fluid builds up...

Optical illusions use color, light, and shapes in a way that creates patterns that can be deceptive to the human eye and mind. Our eyes are conditioned evolutionarily to see things a certain way that makes sense to our brains. We see what is useful and significant to us in ways that have benefitted us through human evolution while other organisms have different mechanisms of seeing the world to cater to their specific needs that differ from ours. We perceive light, color, and shapes in a way that is inherently human and we understand optics enough in order to know why we can distort the things we see. Even Aristotle in 350 BC noted how easily our eyes can be fooled. Whether it be through musings of ancient Greek philosophers or natural phenomena, the world is filled with optical illusions. Sometimes we know they are occurring but still have a hard time getting our eyes to see the truth. For example, the Hermann grid makes our eyes see little grey dots within white intersections ...

One optical illusion is a blivet, also called the impossible trident. It is called an impossible trident because it is impossible to understand. The shape has three cylinder prongs at one end and then gradually turns into rectangular prongs. If you cover half of the object you will find that the figure is possible to comprehend. When looking at the figure you first try to distinguish the outlines of the shape, and from this your try to perceive the boundaries of the shape. Your eyes become confused because of the several ambiguous contours. The outer edges can be interpreted as a rectangle shape or that of cylinder. Altogether, the figure gives contradictory cues for the depth estimation of the middle prong. The illusion is a simple angle trick played on the visual system. It is all about perception. The best optical illusions challenge our perception of reality. Our minds tend to reconstruct 3D imager out of the flat 2D image; it creates the illusion of depth. The printmaker M.C. Esc...

Optical illusions are fascinating because they are almost like magic. These illusions take advantage of the way that our brain perceives visuals.  David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel won the  1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries about how the brain interprets the information sent to it from the eyes. They discovered that there is a step by step process in how the brain analyzes what the eye sees. Each neuron in the brain is responsible for a specific detail in the pattern of the image. But even with Hubel and Wiesel's discoveries and our knowledge of the different parts of the brain that deal with color, form, motion and texture, scientists still don't entirely understand how all the messages come together to produce our overall perception of an object.  In fact, once we've seen the "trick" in an optical illusion, it is almost impossible to un-see it. We are unable to transport our minds back to a time when we didn't know th...

Optical illusions have always been a strange wonder to many.   An optical illusion , is an illusion caused by the visual system and are identified by visually perceived images that are different from objective reality . There are three main types of illusions: literal optical, that create images that are different from the objects that make them, physiological illusions that are the effects of extra stimulation of a specific type (brightness, color, size), and cognitive illusions, the result of unconscious inferences. Pathological visual illusions are created from a pathological exaggeration in physiological visual perception mechanisms causing these types of illusions. One of the most important tools used by neuroscientists to understand how the brain creates its sense of reality is the visual illusion. Historically, artists as well as researchers have used illusions to gain insights into the workings of the visual system. Before scientists were studying neurons, artists...

George Ellery Hale founded the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1904. Hale was a prominent contributor to the field of astrophysics. The observatory was designed to be on the forefront of astrophysics. It is located on top of a mountain at 5,000ft high. Initially Hale worked up at the location with some of his colleagues in in order to develop new ways of learning about the night sky. Eventually in 1908 Hale had a 60-inch telescope built which is still there today. In 1917 the hundred-inch telescope was also built atop the mountain. At the time it was built it was the largest telescope in the whole world. Initially Mount Wilson was supposed to be a part of the University of Southern California campus and was only going to contain a 40-inch telescope. Before the final decision was made however, Southern California experienced a particularly harsh winter. It is because of this and other obstacles such as miscommunications between Edward Pickering (the USC funder) and that...