an interesting light phenomenon in the gorge

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Chip Down
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an interesting light phenomenon in the gorge

Post by Chip Down » August 3rd, 2016, 7:01 pm

We've all seen sunlight pouring in through a gap in the clouds. What if that happened at sunrise? And what if the beam of light was interrupted by a ridgecrest, so that the bottom half of the lightbeam landed on the ridge, and the top half landed "downstream"? And what if that dowstream landing site was steep, so that the half lightbeam actually projected in something roughly resembling a semi-circle? What you'd end up with is a bright orange semi-circle of light on a relatively dark green surface. Something like the picture below. As is generally the case, a cell-phone snapshot just does't do it justice, but you get the idea. Have you seen this in the gorge? Or elsewhere? Do you agree with my interpretation of the phenomenon, or could something else cause this eerie orange glow in the early morning?
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IMG_20160715_055435616_HDR.jpg

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retired jerry
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Re: an interesting light phenomenon in the gorge

Post by retired jerry » August 4th, 2016, 6:03 am

space aliens?

spotlight from a drone? :)

Steve20050
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Re: an interesting light phenomenon in the gorge

Post by Steve20050 » October 10th, 2016, 11:19 am

I was recently up in the North Cascades. I caught this image coming down from Easy Pass. I immediately thought about your post as I tried to decide who was responsible :?: For some reason I thought of the Chevy Malibu in Repo Man. So maybe retired jerry is right, space aliens :) .
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Golden Horn _ Mt Hardy.jpg

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retired jerry
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Re: an interesting light phenomenon in the gorge

Post by retired jerry » October 10th, 2016, 11:47 am

that looks supernatural

better call ghost busters

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Chip Down
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Re: an interesting light phenomenon in the gorge

Post by Chip Down » October 12th, 2016, 8:20 pm

Cool pic, Steve. It's obvious why the bottom is so well defined, but what's weird is the crisp border on the top.

Steve20050
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Re: an interesting light phenomenon in the gorge

Post by Steve20050 » October 13th, 2016, 1:10 am

The light from that was pretty strong. I had a laugh about it all. I was up in the pass for a couple hours. I went up there to get a panorama with my 6X7 on film like this 2nd photo taken with a cybershot while I waited:
DSC00835ps.jpg
Golden Horn and Mount Hardy from Easy Pass.
I'm waiting around for what I wanted,.... like some sun on both the larch and the peaks in the background. Started getting chilled despite the thermals and my Linus blanket, down vest. The icy monsters of the North Cascades peaks on the other side of the pass weren't gonna let it happen. Those peaks are the bottom of the sun beam. The top is the clouds that kept forming above them. I get sun on the foreground larch, no back ground sun on the peaks and visa versa. So I take exposures of both thinking, " Ha, I got ya. I have photo shop". I thank the gods for my time up there. As I start down from the pass, that sunbeam is what I got. It was a good ending for the day. I'll try to get some more photos posted on day hikes in the Chelan and Sawtooth Wilderness and the PCT there around Rainy Pass soon.

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Charley
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Re: an interesting light phenomenon in the gorge

Post by Charley » October 13th, 2016, 8:50 am

This is my favorite kind of light! It renders otherwise two-dimensional frames three dimensional and adds a variety of color that pops off the image.
light.jpg
Believe it or not, I barely ever ride a mountain bike.

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