October 30, 2001
The same gravity that holds galaxies together and keeps planets in their orbits also held you to the Earth on the day you were born.
Anticrepuscular Rays Over Colorado
Birthday · October 30, 2001
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
Free PNG · 1080 × 1350 · No account needed
Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.
Date & occasion only
Change the year
APOD published October 30, 2001. 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 earlier this month from a moving car just outside of Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Image credit: John Britton