catching lightening in a bottle.

Ok, maybe this isn't an actual fulgurite but I think it's about the most interesting picture I've ever taken.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/Ricejocky/DSCN0908.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Ricejocky/media/DSCN0908.jpg.html)

Some background, I work in a linear accelerator facility, when the beam is on the vault the electron gun is in and the target area are deadly radiation areas. Thus we use a lot of lead shielded cameras to see whats going on with the experiment during irradiation.

the glass lens will be damaged over time and will darken (the amber color is radiation damage) The picture on the camera gets darker and darker over time. We have a glass shop on site and can get the lenses annealed to remove the color but the glass parts of the lens need to be removed from the aluminum housing. They expand at different rates and will crack the glass if heated in the housing...

I was given the task to disassemble the lens. As i took it apart, the glass came in contact with aluminum housing and a static discharge took place. Looked like a flash bulb going off right in my face...

After I changed my pants, I figured I'd ruined the lens. One of the older operators told me that the radiation also builds up a static charge on the glass and at least 2 of the other cameras in the facility had very much the same discharge pattern etched in them... well thanks for the info... 14 minutes too late.

the lens was annealed and reassembled and is working in the facility today.

the fun things you can do with high energy accelerators and deadly radiation.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/Ricejocky/DSCN0898.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Ricejocky/media/DSCN0898.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/Ricejocky/DSCN0897.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Ricejocky/media/DSCN0897.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/Ricejocky/DSCN0902.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Ricejocky/media/DSCN0902.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/Ricejocky/DSCN0901.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Ricejocky/media/DSCN0901.jpg.html)

hope your underpants went unsoiled. i'm pretty sure a static discharge while changing a lens inside a linear accelerator would have had mine thoroughly coated in ****.

So, do you glow now?

Oh, I started glowing long before this... I used to eat, sleep, shower, sh**, and shave with in 173 feet of an operating nuclear reactor for a month or so at a time.

Ex Navy Nuclear Submariner. The job I have now is in research, we are looking at how to produce radio isotopes for medical applications (radiopharmaceuticals) Mo99 and Cu67 at the moment.

people are opposed to research reactors being in their back yard, but seem to be more accepting of accelerators... turn off the key and everything stops, no spent fuel, no Fukushima. There is some activation of the structure, but when the gun is powered down... no more radiation

Very cool!

Looking at the Fulgurite wiki I see they have a stereo image of a fulgurite tube
select either "cross eye" or "parallel view"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite

I used to work in radiation protection many years back.
Always said the next person to make the "glow in the dark" remark is going to eat a film badge. So open wide Alex :D

yeah, I was an ELT in the Navy, I did all the non-occ training... and I got my fair share of 'silly questions'... some of them weren't even from the kids on the boat... had one ask me, because his mom wanted to know... was he going to irradiate his mom and dad when he went home for Christmas leave.

as my grandpa used to say, stupid questions are easy to answer, stupid mistakes are hard to fix.

that 3D view on Wiki is pretty cool, takes a second to get it to work, but still, pretty neat.

this isn't really a Fulgurite... more a static discharge path preserved in glass, but still, interesting picture.