What the?
Two different optical effects .... the common rainbow .... More rare, and perhaps more striking, are the rays of light that emanate out from the horizon above the canyon. These are known as anticrepuscular rays and result from sunlight streaming though breaks in the clouds, around the sky, and converging at the point 180 degrees around from the Sun. Geometrically, this antisolar point must coincide with the exact center of the rainbows.
Cool. I've seen sunbeams poking through trees and down through clouds, but never with the sun behind me so that the beams all converge on a single point in the distance. I'll have to keep an eye out for that effect in the future.
You'll have to think about, because a situation like that is usually sunset (or sunrise, but I see more sunsets than sunrises) and at sunset in a pretty situation like that one, I'm usually *looking at the sunset*. This picture has the photographer's back to the sun. The apparent convergence of the rays and shadows doesn't surprise me any more than the apparent convergence of the shoulders of a long straight road or railroad tracks.
Still, a stunning picture.
