No, it's not Sauron reaching across from Mount Doom. It's just the shadow of Mount Rainier in the northwestern U.S., cast across the underside of the clouds at sunrise.
At the brief moment of sunrise and sunset, the rays of sun, peeking past the edge of the curving earth, can shine upward toward a horizontal deck of stratus or altostratus clouds, lighting them from below. If a mountain nearly bumps its head on that deck of clouds, it can cast a shadow across it. As with sunbeams and shadowbeams, the lines of the shadow converge back to the sun's position.
Seen from the top of Mount Rainier, facing away from the sun at sunset, the cast shadow looks triangular. That triangular shape is not the mountain profile you're seeing, but, again, it's the lines of perspective of the edges of the broad mass of shadowed air running back to infinity through lighter illuminated vapor.
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On Halloween, Monday, October 31, from 11-12:30, I'll be lecturing on color and light at the Canzani Center Auditorium at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio. It's free and open to the public.
Links and Credits
More photos of Rainier casting shadows at Geekologie
The second photo of the mountain shadow is by Dale Ireland from Atmospheric Optics
Thanks, Chris Vosters
Previously on GurneyJourney:
Reflected Sunbeams
Shadowbeams
Sunbeams
Friday, October 28, 2011
Mountain Shadows
Labels:
Effects/Phenomena,
Lighting
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13 comments:
Me. Lower jaw. Seperate.
Repeat First Comment. Repeat.
God eye shadow!
Fabulous.
Thank you.
Wow, that's a beautiful effect of light. Thanks for sharing.
Cool!
Glad you enjoyed the link!
The images look incredible thanks for sharing! I can imaging vikings seeing this as Bifrost the bridge to Asgard.
That is incredible!
I have something like that on my blog (08.11.2011), I wish to send original photos, if you wish!
Bierstadt steps up:
http://0.tqn.com/d/arthistory/1/0/6/g/pa_neh_15.jpg
Wow, that's beautiful
Nice pic, but that shadow is not being cast upward to the underbelly of the clouds. It's being cast downward, and the shadow is actually on top of the clouds. Follow the clouds back to the peak, and you can see the peak is sticking up through the clouds.
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