Abstract
THE phenomenon of beams of shadow meeting in the east at sunset, treated of in the pages of NATURE some months since (at which time you did me the honour of inserting a letter of mine), was beautifully witnessed here to-day and yesterday. Both days were unusually clear; there was, nevertheless, a “body” in the air, without which the propagation of the beams could not take place. Yesterday the sky was striped with cirrus cloud like the swaths of a hayfield; only in the east there was a bay or reach of clear blue sky, and in this the shadow-beams appeared, slender, colourless, and radiating every way like a fan wide open. This lasted from 3.30 to about 4.30. To-day the sky was cloudless, except for a low bank in the west; in the east was a “cast” of blue mist, from which sprang alternate broad bands of rose colour and blue, slightly fringed. I was not able to look for them till about 4.30, when the sun was down, and they soon faded. I have not before seen this appearance so far north, but on the south coast, where I first saw it, I think it might often be witnessed. It is merely an effect of perspective, but a strange and beautiful one.
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HOPKINS, G. Shadow-Beams in the East at Sunset. Nature 29, 55 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/029055b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/029055b0
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