Friday, October 28, 2011

Mountain Shadows

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
at

13 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 28, 2011 at 8:38 AM

    Me. Lower jaw. Seperate.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MrCachetOctober 28, 2011 at 9:00 AM

    Repeat First Comment. Repeat.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ScorchfieldOctober 28, 2011 at 9:33 AM

    God eye shadow!

    ReplyDelete
  4. juliefordoliver.blogspot.comOctober 28, 2011 at 11:19 AM

    Fabulous.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. T. ArispeOctober 28, 2011 at 11:40 AM

    Wow, that's a beautiful effect of light. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Charles ValsechiOctober 28, 2011 at 12:14 PM

    Cool!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chris VostersOctober 29, 2011 at 3:54 PM

    Glad you enjoyed the link!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sean McMurchyOctober 30, 2011 at 12:25 PM

    The images look incredible thanks for sharing! I can imaging vikings seeing this as Bifrost the bridge to Asgard.

    ReplyDelete
  9. HarrietOctober 31, 2011 at 5:32 AM

    That is incredible!

    ReplyDelete
  10. ScorchfieldNovember 8, 2011 at 5:24 AM

    I have something like that on my blog (08.11.2011), I wish to send original photos, if you wish!

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousNovember 10, 2011 at 5:43 PM

    Bierstadt steps up:

    http://0.tqn.com/d/arthistory/1/0/6/g/pa_neh_15.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  12. UnknownJanuary 24, 2021 at 6:20 PM

    Wow, that's beautiful

    ReplyDelete
  13. UnknownNovember 11, 2021 at 8:31 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete

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