We had a great time ringing bells in St Albans but I didn't find much Physics. The bell tower at the Cathedral was very high up giving amazing views, so there is the Physics teacher's fall back of lightning conductors. If you magnify the image you'll see that they are copper due to the green colouration when corroded. I did like the notice in the second picture.
New College Oxford is not new. In fact, it is one of the oldest colleges. It is now best known for this tree which appeared in one of the Harry Potter films. I was more taken by the giant sundial. The notice says that it was put in for the Millennium. It also explains why it does not show GMT and explains how to convert to GMT.
The boss found some old spectroscopes on Friday afternoon. The small ones turned out to be the best. I have never seen the absorption spectrum of the Sun with my own eyes before. Here it is! You can clearly see the black lines where hydrogen atoms in the colder (on 4000C ish!) chromosphere have absorbed photons of light and re-emitted them randomly, reducing the intensity. I'm ecstatic.
I went round the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford last month. It's just reopened after a major refit. I was amazed by the amount of Physics. Here's a piece about radioactive carbon dating!
One of my colleagues inspired me to use colour films on my windows. It's such a brilliant idea and I can't understand why it hadn't occured to me before. Seven colours in the spectrum is a contentious idea. It is alleged that Sir Isaac Newton chose 7 as being the perfect number. He was into odd things - he was an alchemist in his spare time, I believe. So my 6 colours are not in fact wrong!