Round and Round and Round

Round and round she goes, and where she stops, nobody knows. We all remember THAT line.

So I decided to write a lens, and in order to do so, I needed a Round Tuit. A Round Tuit is something you get when you get a round tuit. :) And I just got around to it, and hope I get finished by the deadline!

Someone gave me a Round Tuit recently, so I will put it here. Wait, I can't find it. I have to get a round tuit. Anybody got one to spare? Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint, once you get a Round Tuit, you're stuck with it for life, even if you can't find it!

So instead, I will put a photo of the wonderful planet on which we live. Earth is unique, and I will talk about that in a little while.

And by the way, when it comes to Earth, round and round she goes!

The photo was taken with equipment funded by the government and the taxpayer, so it's in the public domain. All other photos and images are mine.

Circles are round. So are spheres. And other things are round, though not perfectly. Ellipses, ovoids, eggs, lots of things are round. So are spirals in fractals. And some things have a decorated edge, such as gears. They have to have teeth, or they won't work.

Do you know why the earth has to be round? It is so it can spin in space and maintain a stable orbit, so life is possible. Also because that way gravity is approximately equal all over the surface. There are mountains and things like that, but they aren't much different in height than the valleys when compared to the overall size of the earth. In spite of this, the air can get quite thin from our perspective, at the tops of mountains.

One thing I love about challenges like these is that it gives me a chance to show you some beautiful things.

I don't attach any religious or spiritual significance to them; they're just pretty

A couple of us have made dream catchers, just as a bit of artistry. There are beautiful ones on Amazon.

When I am able, I will put up photos of the ones we made.

The moon is round. And it has round holes all over it. There are many, many craters, probably formed by meteorites striking the surface. So it's just one big circular mess!

The moon is vitally important for life on earth. It causes the tides. Without the tides, many species of sea life simply would not exist.

I'm not a fan of evolutionary explanations. Fortunately, we don't have to talk about evolution in order to be aware of the role the moon plays in the maintenance of an environment conducive to life on earth. In fact, the moon proves that the earth cannot be very old, because it has been receding slightly every year, in an ever widening orbit. This occurs at about 1/4 of an inch annually. In addition, if the moon had existed a very long time, the dust from meteor strikes would be very deep. It's only 1/8 of an inch thick.

I took this photo of the moon with my Pentax, a 600mm mirror lens (designed similar to a mirror telescope) and a 1.7x extender. Anybody with a good telephoto can do likewise. :)

Fractal images are made from mathematical formulas derived mostly from the Mandelbrot Set. They are designed by an artist, using one of various programs that will write instructions to tell the computer how to color each pixel.

Fractals are perfect for illustrating the concept of round. Sometimes they're circular, and sometimes they're spirals.

I present images from three fractal programs: Apophysis, Ultrafractal, and Xenodream. You may have seen a few of these before, if you have read my other fractal lenses, but most are new.

Regrettably, in my browser, many of the images are positioned too low, so you can't see the entire image. If you have this problem, please let me know and let me know which browser you are using. I hope they will fix this problem soon.

I'll have more to say about round things soon. My brain is still percolating. With round bubbles, of course.