Post-punk Pulsar

October 13, 2015 10:43 AM

Pop Culture Pulsar: The Science Behind Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures Album Cover
posted by zamboni (13 comments total)

I'm glad Hal Craft's work is finally getting credit - for the longest time the observations on the cover were just credited to "Jodrell Bank" or "Encyclopaedia Britannica" or something random like that.

But I'm pretty sure this bit is just deliberately trolling me:
Although radio telescopes still play a large role in collecting pulsar data...
Although? Although???
posted by RedOrGreen at 10:52 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

I love the pulsar blip graphic intensely.
posted by Artw at 10:55 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

My dad loves to tell me that the color spectrum on Dark Side of the Moon is inverted based on the angle of incidence and the direction of the prism.
posted by humboldt32 at 11:08 AM on October 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

He's high.
posted by The Bellman at 11:27 AM on October 13, 2015

I'm glad Hal Craft's work is finally getting credit - for the longest time the observations on the cover were just credited to "Jodrell Bank" or "Encyclopaedia Britannica" or something random like that.

The article links to a prior post which covers Christiansen hunting down the source of the image. Peter Saville got it from the 1977 The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy, which is probably what you're thinking of.
posted by zamboni at 11:44 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Great post, thanks for sharing. I've always been dimly aware of this plot, but never bothered to learn much of the science behind it. I also always mistakenly thought it actually was a wire plot of a surface.
posted by tecg at 2:16 PM on October 13, 2015

This is the kind of plate and bean discussion that I enjoy. Great post.
posted by Fizz at 4:14 PM on October 13, 2015

My favourite takes on the Unknown Pleasures sleeve design, both seen on T-shirts:

WHAT IS THIS PICTURE?
[ familiar pulsar graphic ]
I SAW IT ON TUMBLR

and:

DEPECHE MODE
[ familiar pulsar graphic ]
BOYS DON'T CRY
posted by acb at 6:43 PM on October 13, 2015

i prefer this one
posted by rap and country at 7:44 PM on October 13, 2015

Turns out there's a minor industry in Unknown Pleasures mashup t-shirts.
posted by zamboni at 7:45 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I had a t-shirt of that record cover, bought in some record store in Europe. I had never thought to wonder where the image came from, and this was a neat article to read.

Apparently many people have turned it into tattoos, some quite impressive.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:47 PM on October 13, 2015

I swear we saw this on the blue before. Maybe Joy Division just come up in the collective unconscious every 8.7255 years.

Wait. Isn't that that period of some pulsars?
posted by clvrmnky at 7:56 PM on October 13, 2015

I swear we saw this on the blue before. Maybe Joy Division just come up in the collective unconscious every 8.7255 years.

You're likely thinking of the second Related Post, Unknown Ownership, which coincidentally happened to be part of Worf Day. Adam Capricola traced it back to Arecibo, but didn't get all the way back to Hal Craft. Christiansen links his research in this post.
posted by zamboni at 9:03 PM on October 13, 2015