As I have mentioned before, we don’t have a clear view of the west, so we have to look at what the sunset is doing to other parts of the sky. We saw this a few days ago.
This is looking down Wildlife Trail next to our driveway towards Rome.
We also saw this.
I don’t know exactly what caused this since we couldn’t see the sky behind us, where the sun was setting, but I have to assume there were clouds that cast shadows across the sky and clouds that we could see. I’m going to make another assumption that the two shadows were caused by different clouds or different parts of the same cloud, since they appear to be different widths and shadowing different parts of the sky. It’s odd-looking, almost like a blue beam shooting across the sky. I have seen this phenomenon before, but never with a good view to the west to actually see what’s causing it.
Oh wow! That is spectacular! I wish you could have seen what was happening in the west. It reminds me a bit of anti-crepuscular rays. Can rays cast different width shadows? I think they may. I’ll have to google around to take a look. Wonderful photo!
Robin — Thanks. I knew if anyone would appreciate some good cloud photos, it would be you.
I was just looking at Atmospheric Optics and was blown away by the image there. Thought you might like to take a look.
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz1057.htm
Robin — Leah and I followed the link, and we were both blown away, just like you. Those are amazing images.
Wow. I’m going to be on the lookout for this phenomenon. Gorgeous pictures. Just think. If you had a western view you might never see the splendid stuff taking place in other parts of the sky.
Minnie — Interesting point. You’re probably right, we wouldn’t be looking east.