Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts:

While viewing the image that Roger posted to the list Tuesday evening, I became so interested in the curious formula that I checked to see what I might be able to do with it.  Returning to the default parameters of 0,0 and magnitude of 0.67, I found today's scene in one of the vague bud valleys of the Mandel-like parent.

I have never seen anything quite like the image I came up with.  When rendered at a very high resolution, it almost looks like a true-color image, though the standard 640x480x256 rendering creates a rather gritty but still notable scene.

The scene itself is apparently a minibrot in the East Valley area of a larger minibrot.  The parent fractal however consists of only the western half of a Mandelbrot set, with no East Valley, so today's image must lie in the East Valley area of a minibrot on the filament extending from the largest bud.

I named the image "Sparkling Waters".  Something about it reminds me of a just-opened bottle of soda water.  The rating of a 7 seems about right.

The calculation time of a mere 2-1/4 minutes actually seems a bit too brief for such a detailed image, but that's the way fractals are.  The image may be viewed by saving this entire letter in DOS text mode with a .par extension, copying it into your Fractint directory, and running it as you would any other parameter file.

Near perfect though slightly chilly conditions prevailed here at Fractal Central on Wednesday, with cloudless skies and a temperature of 61F 16C.  The fractal cats slept in the sun to ward off the slight chill.  My day was average, which is the way I like things.

The next FOTD will be posted in 24 hours.  Until then, take care, and the here and now is but an infinitesimal hyperplane sliced from the infinity of spacetime.

Jim Muth
jamth@mindspring.com


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

Sparkling_Waters   { ; time=0:02:16.87-SF5 on P4-2000
  reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=shells.frm
  formulaname=NovenaM2 passes=1
  center-mag=+0.384602701512/-0.621157851044/2409632\
  /1/-132.5/0 params=0/0/0/0 float=y maxiter=32000
  inside=255 periodicity=0
  colors=000mzzmxzrwzquzpszoqznozmmzlkzkizggzcez_czW\
  azS_nOYnLViIReFMaCIY9DT69N34J00E01A02A02A03I04I04I\
  0BI0HIJNIHTIFZII_GK`FMaEPbDRcCTcBWdAYe9_f8bg7dh6fh\
  5YeGQbRI``AYk2WuJuONkPRbPVUPZUz_UzaUz_Uz`UzbUzcUzd\
  WzfZzg`zhcmj`mkcmqecnhctjczzzzwzzzmzwzzzmzwRzmPvkN\
  vjKviIviGvhEvgCvgAreCndDkbEgaFd_G`ZHXXIUWJQUKNTLJR\
  MGQNLPQQOTVNWZNZcM`hLclLfqKivJlzJnyFpxCqx9sw6tw3ur\
  5rn7oj8leAiaCfYDcTF`PHYLIVGKSCMP8NNAPLCRJDTHFVFGXD\
  IZBK`9Lb7Nd5Of3Qh1Rj0Sk3Sk5Sk7TlATlCTlETmHUmJUmLUn\
  OUnQVnSVoVVoXVoZ21V74UB7TFASJDRNFQRIPVLOZONbRMfTLb\
  SP_SSWSVTSYQS`MSdJSgFSjCSm9SpBUnCVlDWjEXhFYfHZdI_b\
  J``KaZLbXNcVOdTPeRQfPRgNShMSgQSgTSgXSg_SgcSgfVThYE\
  j`0lY4jW7iUBhREgPIfNLeTSiZZlcdoiksorvtxyolmk`bgPSc\
  DH_LLWTPS_SOgWKo_HvbWjhiZmwNrvOmvPhvQcsVfp_hnckkhm\
  iloknklpgmrcnt_ovWpwTfqYYkaOeeF_i6Um5Ydzzzzzzzzzzz\
  zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzmmm }

frm:NovenaM2 {; Another Mandelbrot-like set for Novena.
          ; The Nova Formulae, discovered by PGD.
          ; Freely distributable but may not be sold.
  z=-0.5+(-1.75)^(0.5)
  c=pixel:
  z2=z*z
  z3=z*z2
  func=z3+z-2
  der=3*z2+1
  oz=z
  z=z-(func/der)+c
  |oz-z|>p2 }

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