Triangular light cloud - opinions on what this is please

On the 30th December between 8 - 830pm I took a series of sixteen photos of an event in the sky.

I took them on my phone camera 2.0 megapxl - the only camera I had with me at the time - and emailed them from my phone to myself.

The event lasted approx. 20 - 25 minutes

The images in the blog start from the bottom and move upward chronologically. The light rays image at the bottom was the first one I took.



contactsilence.blogspot.com...

I am sure that there is a normal explanation for it. It is neat looking though.

I would suggest refracted light from a light source below the horizon.

Was the pictures taken looking west ?

reply to post by undermind


Can you confirm your location and the direction you were facing?

Given the time the pictures were taken and the visibility I'm guessing you're not in mid northern latitudes else at the time it would have been dark? It looks to be just after sunset?

Also, what was the cloud cover like?

It would appear - especially in the bottom picture - to be a form of crepuscular ray similar to this: snrs.unl.edu...

[edit on 1-1-2008 by Essan]

Wow those picture are soooo nice… but I don’t think is anything unusual must be some sort of atmospheric phenomena.

You have captured a splendid example of what are called crepuscular rays, commonly referred to as "sunbeams" or "Jacob's Ladder".

In this case the sun is over the horizon and is shining through a narrow gap in cloud or terrain. The sliver of sunlight is illuminating haze in the atmosphere. The sunbeam is coming directly towards your location so the effect from your perspective is of a "triangular light cloud" with its point on the horizon.

Very cool pictures. Thanks for sharing them.

[edit on 1-1-2008 by IAttackPeople]

Thanks for the pointer to crepuscular rays, very helpful.

My location was

34° 34’ 18.52” S 150° 49’ 14.19” E

(Oak Flats train station carpark)

Looking almost directly east with the sun having just set behind me, minutes before.

reply to post by codex code


atmospheric phenomena....OR... A giant invisible starship hovering over Earth...COOL...

sunset/sunrise lighting through dense atmophieric conditions casting shadows and light beams.

Mostlikely sunset.

Although the angles of the rays suggest a possible light source at the base (downward apex) or below the hill, I repeat, the sun is not behind or below the cloud.

The summer sun has just set behind me (west) as I face the cloud (east).

At a very rough guess I would say the cloud was some 10 to 20 kilometres away. The reason it's difficult to judge distance is because - on the whole - the cloud was like a white sheet of paper. The upper half especially was two-dimenional and mist-like (no billowing). The base, the downward apex, was more complex, with three-dimensionality. The edges of the cloud extended outwards and upwards in straight lines until disappeared into windless sunset/blue sky. It's location was (therefore also at a guess) above the ocean, some 10 or so kilometres off the coast.

As a meteorological event, It has some of the features of a low pressure cloud system increasing in energy and beginning to form a tornado (not unheard-of here), but then I look again at how uniform it is. Tornado clouds are thick and swirling.

Thanks for comments.