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Originally posted by Uncinus
Originally posted by Kester
Originally posted by Uncinus
It's conceptually a difficult thing to wrap your head around. Took me a while.
What's difficult to understand is how a beam stretching into the far distance at altitude could be described as a volumetric shadow.
Consider if you traced the path of the beam across the sky, would it intersect the sun? (possibly over the horizon).
The relative position of the sun can be visually confusing, seeing as your brain thinks the sun is not much higher than the contrails, when really it's 93 million miles higher. So to trace the of the beam, point at where it started, then rotating your arm at the shoulder, point to where it ended, then continue the rotation.
If you can, include the sun position on an image.
If you take a photo to illustrate this, ideally take a panorama, at the same time of day.
Also, keep an eye out for edge shadows. They show up on any day there are contrails, but only last for a minute or so, and are often indistinct. If you see a contrail drifting towards the sun, you can often wait and see the dark line. You'll see them a lot more now you've noticed them.
Originally posted by Kester
Given the position of the sun and the extent of the beam carrying far into the distance I can't see any way this could have been a shadow of any sort. It was very obvious and very unusual.
Originally posted by Uncinus
Originally posted by Kester
For a few minutes this morning I also saw a huge black beam running East West.
Being in the morning, that makes me think it might be from a contrail or cloud low on the horizon, forming a crepuscular ray. Did it look anything like this?
Originally posted by wigit
....unless he's discovered something new
All of you who choose to travel in jet aircraft for hedonistic purposes or personal enrichment are causing great problems for the more sensible people who choose not to. You are excess baggage.
Originally posted by ProudBird
reply to post by Kester
Oh, jeebus!!
All of you who choose to travel in jet aircraft for hedonistic purposes or personal enrichment are causing great problems for the more sensible people who choose not to. You are excess baggage.
How quaint. Welcome to the 21st century.
This is a society, not a dictatorship ruled by you.
Originally posted by Kester
reply to post by Uncinus
I don't think a diagram would do it justice. A 3D model could cast some light on it but it would still be just a representation of my memory of my perception. My interest in the big cats living in this area has caused me to consider carrying a decent camera. I'll take a look at the techniques used for photographing aircraft and see if I can get some decent shots of what's happening in the sky here.
It may be relevant that this is the worst day for a long time in regard to the horrendous amount of jet smog above us.