11/24: Sun pillar

Undertoad · 11-24-2001, 08:43 PM

Late post today!

The line in the sky there isn't a camera or lens problem, and it isn't a mirage, and most importantly it isn't aliens. It's an actual event called a "sun pillar", which happens due to light refraction off ice crystals, when the sun is near the horizon. I've never seen one in person.

jet_silver · 11-24-2001, 10:10 PM

Beautiful, UT.

I thought I'd seen all the cool atmospherics: aurora, green flash, "sun dogs", Brockengespenstphanomen... this is the first I've ever even heard of a 'sun pillar' and it is lovely.

Ice crystals in the sky. You'd see that at high latitudes... like when rounding Cape Horn. And the early mariners who went around there had enough superstition and enough actual miserable situations to make anything new and eerie like this quite frightening. It would make a terrific detail in a Patrick O'Brian book.

Scopulus Argentarius · 11-24-2001, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Undertoad

Late post today!

The line in the sky there isn't a camera or lens problem, and it isn't a mirage, and most importantly it isn't aliens. It's an actual event called a "sun pillar", which happens due to light refraction off ice crystals, when the sun is near the horizon. I've never seen one in person.

Nice...nice... are you sure that isn't bouncing off of Superman's Fortress of Solitude?

Cool

Chewbaccus · 11-25-2001, 10:26 AM

That's not Superman. That's Cyclops signaling the rest of the X-Men.

...amateur.

Superiorly,

~Mike

11-24-2001, 08:43 PM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	11/24: Sun pillar Late post today! The line in the sky there isn't a camera or lens problem, and it isn't a mirage, and most importantly it isn't aliens. It's an actual event called a "sun pillar", which happens due to light refraction off ice crystals, when the sun is near the horizon. I've never seen one in person.

11-24-2001, 10:10 PM	#2
jet_silver wazmo medio Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: San Narciso, CA Posts: 53	Beautiful, UT. I thought I'd seen all the cool atmospherics: aurora, green flash, "sun dogs", Brockengespenstphanomen... this is the first I've ever even heard of a 'sun pillar' and it is lovely. Ice crystals in the sky. You'd see that at high latitudes... like when rounding Cape Horn. And the early mariners who went around there had enough superstition and enough actual miserable situations to make anything new and eerie like this quite frightening. It would make a terrific detail in a Patrick O'Brian book. __________________ "De lood van die Goevernement sal nou op julle smelt." -Thomas Pynchon

11-25-2001, 10:26 AM	#4
Chewbaccus Freethinker/booter Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 523	That's not Superman. That's Cyclops signaling the rest of the X-Men. ...amateur. Superiorly, ~Mike __________________ Like the wise man said: Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

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