Last week I saw the Sun set in the East...

I experienced the strangest thing last week when driving home from work. I live in Denver so I have an easy time determining which direction is west, since the sun sets over the Rockies.

But when I was driving home last monday, I was pulling down my street and thought to myself, "Wow that sunset sure is beautiful", but then I realized that I was looking towards the Northeast. There were what looked to be those quintessential rays coming up from the horizon where the sun had just set, but there is absolutely nothing that direction that could cause such a noticable sight. The airport is way off to the east, and there arent any military bases close enough to cause this.

I went in and told my fiancee about it and as usual she thought I had been getting "too into" ATS. When she came outside we both stood there pretty much baffled. Big bright rays were pouring up from the horizon and continued to until just after the sun set

Does anyone know what could cause a sight like this? It couldnt have been a plane or a planet as it was far too bright. I am just struggling to find out what it was. It honestly looked like the sun had just set, but then I turned around and watched the real sun set. Maybe some crazy weather phenomenon? A mirage?

Anyone? I'm



Mods: I had absolutely no idea which forum to place this in so feel free to move where appropriate.

Get a compass. Verify the direction from the location you viewed the sunset where. Then ask around town and make sure you are not the only one who saw it.

It's called Earth's Magnetic Pole Reversal

Well, honestly I don't know.


But if it were a conspiracy that the sun really sets in the east (hypothetical), here would be some answers NASA and/or the government would say to you:

It was:


-Venus

-An atmospheric anomaly

-Swamp gas

-Atmospheric particles and gases distorting your view of the sky

-An extra bright star

-Illuminated clouds



This is just something I thought would be funny to put together, but in real life, I really don't know what could of caused you to see the sun setting in he east.

:/

I thought it was basic space-physics; the earth revolves around the sun, and as such the sun appears in different places in the sky at different times during the year.

It's possible it only looked like it was in the north-east.

Perhaps the sunlight was hitting the air-particles in such a way that the photons were reacting against one another, although of course this would come under the term 'Crazy weather phenomenon'.

I really don't know, to be truthful.

I've seen this a couple of times in five decades. I don't know how it happens, but I stand behind you on your observation. It's obviously very rare. I assume it's some sort of reflected image under the right atmospheric conditions.

Could it have been some sort of Aurora? A cosmic reaction/phenomena that caused some sort of reflection or mirror from the real Sun. I am pretty confused, but I'l keep my eyes open because where I live the Sun raises behind a beautiful mountain and sets far west into city lights, I will notice it for sure if something like that happens.


-Jimmy-

OK, say you've got one of those rare conditions where the sun is out but it's covered (in the west) by some dark clouds on the Horizon.

In the east are some highly reflective clouds, also near the horizon.

The -actual- Sun in the West is shielded from your view on the ground by the well-positioned cloud bank and it's near the horizon but not set yet.

The rest of the sky is cloudless, therefore when the Sun reflects off of these refractile clouds (ice crystals?) you seem to see the Sun near the Eastern horizon. The cloudless sky in the middle wouldn't really reflect any light and it would help the illusion. It would also help if you live in a place that's kind of down in a valley or has the horizon obscured by trees and buildings.

Just a guess.

That's some fine thinking, Badge. But Don said it looked like a sunset.

Don, what were the colors that you saw? Was it all orange and red and yellow and stuff? I've never heard of clouds "reflecting" such long rays before.

Or was it a bright blue? If so then Badge may be on to something. It may have just been a relative brightness thing.

Edit: No, wait. You said you saw the actual sunset in the west. Hmm.

[edit on 27-11-2007 by Tuning Spork]

Since this was not an international phenomenon and people didn't go nuts about it, I can only assume this was a perspective anomoly. I am quite sure I was on this planet that day and all was well to me

I unfortunately have to drive directly towards the setting sun on my way home, so an easy non-blinding drive would have been not only appreciated but note worthy as well.

reply to post by Don Wahn

Hey Don Wahn, Your not alone and read what happened to me in 1976:

I was returning to Florida from seeing my mom in the hospital in WVa., it was late at night probably around 11pm while driving back through Alabama/Tennessee going due south on the interstate highway I-65.

What occurred was that an extremely bright Blue/White light which reminded me of a Gigantic locomotive train light appeared just behind me about 50yds quite suddenly and it seemed like it followed me at the same pace I was driving around 60 mph and its movement was so strange
(no movement just pacing me) I kept noticing that it didn’t fluxuate with the contour of the road and I took notice also there was no sound as if a helicopter, it just didn't make sense to me.

This Bright Blue/White light lit up the entire interior of the car and it was so hard to try and concentrate on looking at the dash board meters because of the reflection of the light and as I said I couldn't move my head from side to side, so I had to just look in the forward direction.

This light was like florescent light and not incandescent light and I noticed it with a light pale image of a light blue tint imbedded in the white light. I got the feeling at one moment in time that I could have taken my hands off the steering wheel and my feet off the gas pedal and let the car drive itself and keep in mind I didn' t have cruise control, but I couldn't.

I wanted to alert my wife who was sleeping beside me in the car, but as I said, I felt controlled as if in a trance or some hypnotic mind control, so I kept my head straight ahead or forced, whatever, I even tried to take my foot off of the accelerator, my thoughts were to wake my wife but the only thing I could do was use my eyes to look in the forward direction and glance as well at the rear view mirror from time to time or maybe most of the time to keep track of its movements or was this what I was supposed to do, who knows, last of all I also noticed my palms were sweaty on the steering wheel but I couldn’t take them off to wipe them.

It seemed like for hours this occurrence was happening or maybe time was standing still or whatever I don’t really know, but in real time maybe about an hour went by. I took notice as well, there were no cars in either direction the total time this event was occurring and remember this is an Interstate highway system, nothing seemed to be happening, such a sureal moment in time, how did it go away well, Poof the light was gone is the only explanation I can come up with.

After it was gone, I was able to make body movements the first thing I did was move my head, then wipe my hands off, then I stopped the car on the side of the road got out and looked all around front and back then up into the night sky, this stopping of the car caused my wife to wake and you can only imagine what she thought and said when I told her of this occurrance, finally I noticed life on the road with cars and such and back to the now time zone, the cars drove past in both directions, so tell me did my time stop or what, now doesn’t this event seem strange to you, but anyway the years have passed and from time to time I find myself thinking for no reason back to those memories and I ask myself, why me? Someday if it's not to late I will go under hypnosis, what do you think. gwhint

Hey man!

Don't worry, I had many an evening like that after one too many shots of tequila. In fact, I vaguely recall at one time gaining transcendental philosophical insight from an eight ball on a pool table in some ramshackled bar in the boonies of Georgia.

Just kidding.

I'm no scientist, but if I were to wager a guess -- especially since the sun was in fact also setting in the west -- you witnessed some atmospheric phenomenon, perhaps cloud reflections?

Wish you shot a pic of it....

While I can't know specifically what you saw I think Jimmy may be on to something in saying that you may have witnessed an aurora borealis.

Aurora activity can vary as much as the colors of the displays.

While I don't know if these help per se here are two links that show the aurora's will show up in colorado from time to time:

www.komar.org...

www.houseofthud.com...

basic aurora stuff:

www.exploratorium.edu...

www.geo.mtu.edu...

I think it far more likely that you saw something like this rather than the sun setting in the east.

Hope these links help.

spiderj

I've been noticing this as well. I always note of the position of the sun and the moon because of my drive to and from work everyday is from east to west and then from west to east.

I don't think it is an atmospheric illusion. I have noticed the sun rising very much "off" the normal location that it usually rises many times over the last few years.

I have seen the same with the moon. I particularly notice the moon sometimes transiting too far to in the south many times over the last few years.

Perhaps it is caused because our solar system is being perturbed by our approach to the galactic plane.

The galactic plane is a flattened out gravitational plane extending from the center of the super-massive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

We will be completely within the galactic plane sometime around 2012. These celestial perturbations are probably caused by our approach to it.

-Euclid

I dont know about the sun but for the first time in the 5 years that we have lived in our home, the moon rose from the North and I was able to see it from my bedroom window. It was so odd, my 4 year old and I were watching TV last night in my bed and she looked out the window and asked what that was, it was the moon, very big very yellow just sitting there. We have never seen the moon from our bedroom, we were able to see it from 9-11:30 and then it was out of sight, it was very weird and I cant let it go, just so odd.

Originally posted by euclid
I've been noticing this as well. I always note of the position of the sun and the moon because of my drive to and from work everyday is from east to west and then from west to east.

I don't think it is an atmospheric illusion. I have noticed the sun rising very much "off" the normal location that it usually rises many times over the last few years.
-Euclid

Careful basing your observations on the juxtaposition from the routes you take to and from work. Often times, the direction that a highway says it travels may in fact not be that way the entire route.

For instance. In Atlanta, we have Interstate 85, which travels north and south. But in some areas, if you're driving home in the evening, the setting sun is directly in your eyes. That's because at some points the highway is actually traveling east and west.

Your story reminded me of a phenomenon that happens here in Alaska sometimes. I have personally seen this, however it was at sunrise. There was clouds to the west and clear sky to the east. The sun was rising over the mountains with beautiful rays, however when I looked to the west there were rays over there as well, like the sun was rising to the west at the same time. It was very weird, but very cool at the same time. Ice Crystals in the atmosphere is what caused the phenomenon on top of the fact that we were very near the Winter solstice (titled axis of the Earth). I do not remember the name of this phenomenon but as soon as I find out I will let you know.

I live here in Aurora, a few miles south east of Denver, though I haven't seen anything like this in the last week. Too bad I missed it.

Thanks for the responses everyone. Since I am obviously not an expert in weather phenomenon, I think that there is a possibility that some of you guys are on the right track, but it was just so weird, there is nothing that I could compare it to.

You know when you think or see the "picture perfect" sunset, and just after the sun passes the horizon, you get those big streaks of sunlight, almost like when there is heavy cloud cover, and rays manage to get past the clouds, how they are really distinct? That is exactly what I saw. The rays were a light orange/yellow color. I think there could be a possibility of some clouds being ultra-reflective, but I cant see how the Aurora Borealis could extend all the way down to Denver. It did happen when a large cold front was moving in so maybe it is along the lines of what wrangell mentioned.

I wish that I knew more of my neighbors, but I doubt they saw anything. I stood on my porch baffled for a solid 5 minutes and there was no one else in sight, aside from my fiancee.

I know the whole title of this thread my have been a tidbit misleading, but thats what I perceived. After looking at thelinks from Spider J. It is evident that the Aurora CAN indeed make its way down to CO, but I still dont think thats what I saw.

Still pretty freakin odd though. One of the oddest things I have ever seen without a doubt.

Don Wahn... Here is a thread I posted some time ago that you may find of some interest..

Is the Earth changing It's Rotation? NASA says yes!!

[edit on 28-11-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]