Are all the wheels on this train going in the same direction?

Can you make the star disappear? Stare closely at the small orange star in the middle and if you are clever enough the larger star will disappear. Did it work for you?

If you look at the two red balls they are moving from left to right diagonally back and forth. But now look directly at the orange star and the two red balls seem to circulate the center a little in your peripheral vision.

Nice easy one for you today. I have tried it out on a number of different people and got widely different answers. The question is which number on the left is the same height as the very top of the colored shapes on the right? 
Click on the picture to see how you did.

BTW a number of people thought that the graph is tilting slightly down on the right (CW) - It is not.

Click on the picture to reveal the cat

Today we post a beautiful picture suggested to us by Alan Mason an artist and writer from Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire, England. It is Rene Magritte's famous painting 'Le Blanc-Seing' (literal translation: "The Blank Signature") which roughly translates as "free hand" or "free rein". Alan also tells us Magritte was recorded as saying that the purpose of art was to puzzle and mystify people, which resonates well with us here at Optical Spy.

Initially, the painting appears to be an ordinary painting of a woman on horse back riding through a forest. But when you look closer at the painting you realize that something is amiss. The woman and horse are impossibly interlaced within the forest.

Normally closer objects visually cover up those positioned behind them. Not in this painting, the woman on the horse should be hidden by the tree in front of her yet we see her image in front of the tree.

As with many famous and unusual artworks this has been borrowed and adjusted by other artists. It was famously used for the cover of a 'The Grand Illusion' the seventh studio album by Styx ,a popular American rock band from Chicago Illinois in the mid 1970s and early 1980s

One big parrot and one little parrot. Not really click here.

Can you name these three famous paintings? Click picture for the answers.

This guy is looking down over the railing but are we looking down on him or up at him?

This new advertisement by Honda is brilliant. Take a look here.

Now see how it was made.

Can you find the hidden animals in the pictures below?

Click the picture to turn upside down

Can you guess which of these two Optical Spy clocks runs fast and which runs slow?

Click on the optical for full size for best view