Sunset with Green Flash and Two Tiny Pillars
Taken by Helio C. Vital on December 25, 2013 @
Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Click photo for larger image
| |
Camera Used: SONY DSC-HX300
Exposure Time: 1/80
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO: 80
Date Taken: 2013:12:25 19:36:19
|
|
| More images
Details:
Sunset was not a typical one on Christmas Day of 2013. For a few days already, I had noticed the presence of an inversion layer on the sea surface as it was causing some unusual optical effects. Then, as the Sun was setting behind a cloud just above the Southwestern horizon, one of my shots captured the characteristic appearance of a green flash across the uppermost part of the solar disc, next to the upper border of the cloud some 20 arc minutes above the horizon. Adding to the rare display, roughly one minute later, two shots captured what seemed to be a pair of tiny Sun pillars (last entry). A possible explanation for the phenomenon is that sunlight passing through a pair of small gaps in the clouds acted as two point-like sources and their images were projected (or extended) upward by intense refraction within the temperature inversion layer. The photos were taken with a Sony DSC-HX300 camera at 21:36-37 UT.
Photographer's website:
http://https://www.flickr.com/photos/98669508@N03/
|
|
|
