Two shots of the famous first Julia Set formation, The Single Julia. One image shows Stonehenge in the background -- a mandatory shot. The other looks almost straight down at the great crop circle.
I flew over it on the second day of its existence, and had heard only that it was a massive spiral of circles. As we approached and I could just make it out, my first thought was that it was a centipede. But I have a background in computer graphics, so by the time we were directly above, it dawned on me that it represented a Julia set.
I had written an article on fractals for a computer magazine about ten years earlier, and I knew this was a very important development for the crop circle phenomenon. Together with the three-armed Triple Julia Set that appeared later in the summer, the croppie community was inspired to delve deeper into the cutting edge mathematical study of fractals (which they had been introduced to them with the appearance of the Mandelbrot set in 1991).
Two shots of the famous first Julia Set formation, The Single Julia. One image shows Stonehenge in the background -- a mandatory shot. The other looks almost straight down at the great crop circle.
I flew over it on the second day of its existence, and had heard only that it was a massive spiral of circles. As we approached and I could just make it out, my first thought was that it was a centipede. But I have a background in computer graphics, so by the time we were directly above, it dawned on me that it represented a Julia set.
I had written an article on fractals for a computer magazine about ten years earlier, and I knew this was a very important development for the crop circle phenomenon. Together with the three-armed Triple Julia Set that appeared later in the summer, the croppie community was inspired to delve deeper into the cutting edge mathematical study of fractals (which they had been introduced to them with the appearance of the Mandelbrot set in 1991).
The 600 foot 'DNA Molecule' in the Alton Barnes East Field in 1996. I lived in a house in the corner of the field that summer, and was lucky enough to be the first person in the formation early in the morning.
The 'Triple Julia Set' formation near Windmill Hill in 1996 -- one of the greatest formations of all time.
The 'DreamCatcher' below Woodborough Hill at Alton Priors in 1997. The huge ring behind it is a 'crop mark' caused by a Neolithic ditch that was either a Henge or encampment. It only shows up a few times in a decade, when the weather is just right.