FOTD -- June 13, 2009 (Rating 8) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: In today's image we slice the 4-D Seahorse Valley complex in the Elliptic direction. This orientation results when the imag(z) axis is perpendicular to the Mandelbrot plane and the resulting three-dimensional slice of the Julibrot is cut in a horizontal direction parallel to the top of the desk. Real(z) and/or imag(c) must be set a bit above or below zero, or else the slice misses Seahorse Valley, passing through the space between the two branches. In today's case, both values are set to 0.06, which eliminates X-axis symmetry in the parent fractal. In this parent, Seahorse Valley appears as a bridge between the north and south shores. Two micro-thin hairlines lie on the west edge of the bridge, with today's scene lying in the thinner hairline closer to the main body of the valley. These hairlines are actually parts of Seahorse Valley sub-buds seen from the side. A look at the crazy values in the parameter file will show that today's image was hugely stretched and skewed to bring it to a recognizable appearance. In fact, I did no actual skewing, but the rotating and stretching I did has the same effect as skewing. I rated the image at an 8. This includes a full point for the coloring, which turned into a study of getting smooth colors from a 256-color palette. The unusual in-to-infinity-and-out- again spiral accounts for the other 7 points. The calculation time of 6-3/4 minutes is barely within reason, so why not take a scenic trip to the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and save the minor effort of setting up this letter so that it will run as a Fractint parameter file. The Friday weather was uneventful here at Fractal Central. The partly cloudy skies and temperature of 81F 27C were so close to normal that little else need be said. The fractal cats slept through most of the non-action. Meanwhile, my day was also close to average, and with any luck, tomorrow will be the same. The next FOTD is due to be posted in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and live in peace with fractals. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Seahorse_Valley-13 { ; time=0:06:44.61-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basic.frm formulaname=Elliptic center-mag=-0.756516862636129\ 8/-0.3556880339637087/4.796564e+007/0.0006617/89.9\ 81502659185395/-89.0184738672499662 params=0.06/0/\ 0/0.06 float=y maxiter=15000 inside=255 logmap=2708 periodicity=10 mathtolerance=0.05/1 colors=000SEtTFtUGtVHsWIsXJsYJsZKr_Lr`MraNrbOqcOqd\ PqeQqfRpgSpgTqhTrgUrfVqeXpdYocZnb_ma`l`ak_bkZckYdk\ XekWfkVflUflTflSfkRfkQfkQfkQelRelTemVemXdnYdn_dnad\ occoecpfcphcqjbqlbqnbrpbrrastasvatwatwarw`qw_pv_nv\ ZmuZkuYitXgtXfsXdsXbsY`rY_rZYqZWq_Up`TpaRobPocNocM\ ocNncOmcPlcQkcRicSgcTedUceXafZ_g`YgcYfeZeg`ejadlbc\ nccpbboabnabm`bl`ak_ajZaiZahYagY`gX`fX`eW`dV`cV_bU\ _aU_`TZ_UY`TY_TXZTWYTVXTUWTSVTRUSPTSNSSMRSKQSJPSHO\ SGNREMRCLRBKR9JR8IR6HR5HQ6IQ7JP8KP9LOALOBMNCNNDOME\ PMFPLGQLGRLHSKITKJTJKUJLVIMWINXHOXHPYGQZGR_GR_HQ`I\ PaIObJNcKMdKLeLKfMJgMIhNHiNHimTGoTEzmDzTBzmAzUBzmB\ zUCzUCzmCzUDzmDzUEzmEzUEzmGzZIzmKzzLzdNzuPzhRzuSzl\ UzuWzpYzuZzt`zubzsdzuezuczrbzuapj_ngZlcYj_XhWVfSUd\ PTbLS`HQZDPX9OV3JW6NW8RWBVXDZXGbXHdXIeYMdZQdZUd_Xd\ _`d`ddahcakcbocbsccwcczcbyaay_`yZ_yXZyVYxUNCmLCnJB\ pHBrFAtB9vDAuEBuGCuHDuJEt } frm:Elliptic {; Jim Muth imag(z),real(c) z=flip(imag(pixel))+p1, c=real(pixel)+p2: z=sqr(z)+c, |z| <= 16 } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================