Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts:

Today's image lies in the same parent fractal as yesterday's, but instead of lying in East Valley, today's image lies near the terminal point of the filament extending from the large bud on the south shore of the main bud of the parent, which is shaped like the body of a stringed instrument.

When I first saw the image, I had to double check to be sure I had not inadvertently reset the 'outside' to something other than the standard 'iter'.  When I did, I found that the dagger-like features are real, and not mere artifacts of a fancy algorithm.  (IMO, the equal-iteration-band method creates the only 'true' fractals.)

The image, with its vaguely threatening streaks of brilliant colors, rates an honest 9.5, which is really outstanding by FOTD standards.

I named the image "Starfish Playground" when something in the scene reminded me of an 8-armed starfish.

The calculation time of 2-1/4 minutes is quite a bargain for such an unusual image.

The heavy clouds continued today here at Fractal Central, as did the rain, and to make matters worse, the temperature dropped to a raw 43F +6C, with a forecast of snow tonight.  The fractal cats, who never venture outside, felt sorry for the humans, who do venture out.

The next FOTD will be posted in 24 hours, but there is no guarantee that it will be another image rating a 9-1/2.  Until then, take care, and I just won the Microsoft Lottery for the ninth time, but I have yet to see a single U.S. dollar.

Jim Muth
jamth@mindspring.com


START PARAMETER FILE=======================================

StarfishPlayground { ; time=0:02:15.00 SF5 at 2000MHZ
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  formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=ident passes=1
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  1.13848e+012/1/92.5/0 params=1/0.5/-1/0.7/4/300/0/0
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  000000000000000000000000000000000000T0lQ0iP0fN0dM0\
  aJ0ZH0WG0TE0SB0PA0M80Jzzz }

frm:MandAutoCritInZ {; Jim Muth
a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2),
g=1/f, h=1/d, j=1/(f-b), z=(((-a*b*g*h)^j)+(p4)),
k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel):
z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c,
|z| < l }

END PARAMETER FILE=========================================