Introduction

The English translation of Marcel Minnaert's book "Light and Colour in the open air" was first published in 1940. The most recent of several editions has been renamed "Light and Color in the Outdoors" (Springer Verlag, ISBN 0-387-94413-3) and includes some re-drawn figures and a set of new colour photographs. This is a remarkable book and is a wonderful source for physics education since it draws attention to, and explains in a simple yet authoritative style, many physical phenomena which can be observed in our surroundings with no - or only the very simplest - equipment.

These web pages have been created in the spirit of Minnaert's work. In them I use mostly my own photographs of natural phenomena and attempt to give explanations of the underlying physics. A few of the topics include images of astronomical phenomena taken by colleagues with some of the world's largest and most modern telescopes.

Last update: 4 July 1999: rfosbury@eso.org
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