Saturday 20 March 2010

Hexagonal sunset


Huh?

Click on the photo for a larger version. I took a bunch of photos in yet another failed attempt to catch the green flash and they all showed a rather hexagonal-looking sun. What gives?

6 comments:

Keera Ann Fox said...

Cirrus clouds acting like lenses*. ;-) I mean, that's some refraction!

*) I know they don't.

Andrew Cooper said...

A temperature inversion causing a distortion of the sun's disk...

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/atoptics/mirtemp.htm

Tom said...

Andrew - thanks for the link! I'm aware of the subtleties of inversion layers and how they affect the sun but I don't think I've ever seen such a perfect geometrical shape like this one! I was a bit worried that I'd done some damage to my camera.

Tom

Zuzana said...

As you know, I love sunsets. Intriguing sun shape indeed, it must be the atmosphere that plays trick on us.;)
xo
Zuzana

Maren aka hilobeads aka Palms, Etc. said...

Some long time ago (when I was still in Germany) I saw two suns. One was a bit squished, and the other one about as round as it ought to be. Of course, this was all caused by atmospheric layering. They were stacked perfectly on top of one another. I still wish I had had a camera on me then.

Tom said...

Maren - I'm sure I've seen the odd picture or two which show exactly what you describe. I don't think I've seen the effect myself but usually I'm doing the landscape thing rather than concentrating on the setting sun!

Tom