Rapatronic photos

[mazdamn02]

What's that you may ask? Well its a style of camera that is really quick. You can wikipedia it if you want. What could you use that picture for? Well for taking pictures of nukes going off miliseconds after detonating!
Here's where I got the pix: http://simplethinking.com/home/rapatronic_photographs.htm

Developed by Dr. Harold Edgerton in the 1940s, the Rapatronic photographic technique allowed very early times in a nuclear explosion's fireball growth to be recorded on film. The exposures were often as short as 10 nanoseconds, and each Rapatronic camera would take exactly one photograph.

A bank of four to ten or more such cameras were arranged at tests to record different moments of early fireball growth.

They provide technical information about the device's disassembly. In some of the images shown below, accelerating bomb debris 'splashes' on a relatively slower growing fireball surface, creating irregularities and mottling.

Shot George from Operation Greenhouse (225KT, 1951). 10 ms after detonation.

Shot George from Operation Greenhouse (225KT, 1951). 20 ms after detonation. The bright band near the base is the emerging Mach stem, an area of maximum shock.

Shot George from Operation Greenhouse (225KT, 1951). 30 ms after detonation. Mach stem continues to grow.

Unidentified shot from Operation Tumbler-Snapper (1952; kiloton range). Roughly 1 ms after detonation. Visible along the bottom of the fireball's surface are what have been referred to as 'rope tricks'. Absorption of thermal energy by the tower's guy wires result in such spike-like extensions. Further discussion of this phenomenon is available here.

Shot Lea from Operation Hardtack II (1958, 1.4KT)
This test was a "fizzle" in yield, and suspended from a balloon 1500 feet above surface. The balloon's mooring cables absorbed thermal energy ahead of the fireball and created the three 'spikes' visible.

Unidentified shot from Operation Upshot-Knothole (1953, kiloton range).

^^^That's way cool... :rockon:

Mohawk shot from Operation Redwing (1956, 360KT). A thermonuclear test, the 'black stick' towards the lower right of the picture is a 300-foot tower, on which the device rested. The remains of the shot cab form the 'pimple' on the right.

 

[dmention7]

That is pretty badass!

 

[mndsm]

That is cool.

 

[dmention7]

I'd like to see a high-speed video of a nuclear detonation with that kind of detail. That'd be completely wicked.

 

[mndsm]

That would be rockin.