November 28, 2010
The atoms in your body have known many forms: star core, drifting dust, ocean mineral, living cell.
Anticrepuscular Rays Over Colorado
Birthday · November 28, 2010
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APOD published November 28, 2010. Credit: John Britton. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
What's happening over the horizon? Although the scene may appear somehow supernatural, nothing more unusual is occurring than a setting Sun and some well placed clouds. Pictured above are anticrepuscular rays. To understand them, start by picturing common crepuscular rays that are seen any time that sunlight pours though scattered clouds. Now although sunlight indeed travels along straight lines, the projections of these lines onto the spherical sky are great circles. Therefore, the crepuscular rays from a setting (or rising) sun will appear to re-converge on the other side of the sky. At the anti-solar point 180 degrees around from the Sun, they are referred to as anticrepuscular rays. Pictured above is a particularly striking set of anticrepuscular rays photographed in 2001 from a moving car just outside of Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Image credit: John Britton