Revolving Mirror Project

An on-going and (yet) incomplete effort

Here is the setup with my Canon T4i digital camera.

This shows the 120 volt 60 RPM motor which spins a 6-sided spool onto which I glued 6 first-surface mirrors.

This shows a view down the tube to expose the mirror-covered spool that spins at 60 RPM (one complete revolution per second).

The camera with its lens viewing the spinning spool.

I created this apparatus to try to photograph the very fast multiple lightning discharges in what appears to the eye to be a lingering lightning stroke.

Here is the daytime view of the distant horizon as seen from my driveway through the device (reflected off one of the mirrors) but without the mirrors spinning.

This is a view of the distant horizon as seen from my driveway at night, as photographed through the device without the mirrors rotating.

This is a one-second exposure of the scene above taken through the device with the mirrors spinning.

This is a 1/1000 second exposure of a single-filment light bulb taken through the device with the mirrors spinning.

The next step: to try to catch an image of an actual lightning stroke with the mirrors spinning.