Thursday, August 30, 2012

Rays of Light

Earlier this month the sky looked weird at sunset,


as if some of the clouds had been wiped away along a straight edge.

.

It was probably just crepuscular rays* that happened to have very wide bands of light and shadow.


In my sky folder, and I found these images of more typical looking rays:








On Monday evening, I followed a ray of light from the sunset in the west...


all the way across the sky...



to the east where subtle rays appeared to converge opposite the setting sun.
(The white dot is the moon.)

anti-solar crepuscular rays

*It is interesting to note that although sun beams seem to radiate outwards, it is an illusion.  Rays of sunlight are parallel to each other like rails on a train track that appear to converge at a vanishing point at the horizon.

See more sky images from around the world at Skywatch Friday.

19 comments:

Alicia said...

Just Gorgeous! I love Arizona sunsets and sunrises and Arizona lightening storms. I miss Arizona so much!

Icy BC said...

They are so gorgeous though, Diane! Have a great long weekend!

Janie said...

You saw lots of unusual sky views, and they all made great photos.

Barb said...

What an interesting phenomena. It does look like a fold in the sky or a curtain separating two scenes. Magnificent skies!

Gaelyn said...

Excellent collection of rays captures. Those first shots do look like something is missing.

Giga said...

Piękne zdjęcia nieba. Nie widziałam jeszcze takiego zjawiska jak na pierwszych zdjęciach, niesamowite. Pozdrawiam.
Beautiful pictures of the sky. I've never seen such a phenomenon as the first pictures, amazing. Yours.

Rohrerbot said...

Yeah!!! You're back:) I remember those that weird night. I think I got some shots from the downtown area.....beautiful stuff. Your shots are wonderful...and the best part is that you don't have any telephone wires in the shots:) Hope you have a nice Labor Day weekend. Chris

betchai said...

oh, these are very beautiful shots, Diane. those ray of lights are spectacular.

Thérèse said...

I like very much the last pic... Illusion in nature! Very nice.

Magpie said...

You are so observant! I love seeing the world through your lens. :)

Warren said...

very striking photos of light patterns in the sky, nice!

ZielonaMila said...

Fantastic photographs, I like to admire such views. In the sky we can observe wonderful images. I am greeting

angryparsnip said...

Wonderful !
Daughter saw the "Rays of light" the other day and asked me about them... I didn't really have an answer but I will be showing her this post !
We took some of the same cloud photos but from a different vantage points,
Your are beautiful, especially the forth one from the bottom. Fabulous !

cheers, parsnip

rainfield61 said...

The last one is really fabulous.

Darla said...

Gorgeous diversity...and educational, too! :-)

Spare Parts and Pics said...

I've never seen anything like the sky in those first 3 photos... really amazing.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

OH WOW---what gorgeous photos. Love your sky pictures especially the ones with sunbeams... AWESOME.

Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Betsy

Magia da Inês said...

♡✿彡╮

Incrivelmente belo!
Bom fim de semana!
Beijinhos.
Brasil.
•°♫¸.♪♫°

Zenserly said...

wow! catching my breath here...amazing sky captures...I love the first and the last one most...sigh...they are so beautiful I want to gaze at them all day...the fifth photo with the scattered clouds and rays make me think of heaven being a place on Earth...