Credit & Copyright: John Britton       
       
Explanation:
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.       
       
        
       
       
       
 Authors & editors: 
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official:  Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
  