Setting aside the "Rules and Regulations" issue, I'd like to
tell you about an interesting phenomenon I observed this morning,
while waiting for the lightrail to take me to work. Although not
related to astronomy, it was a cool thing to see in the sky.
There was a cloud layer at constant height, with the all sky covered
except some remote area at the east. About 5-10 degrees above the
horizon in this direction, there was a bright pinkish orange
elongated spot, with diffused edges, just as the clouds being
illuminated from below from a monster flashlight.
The sun was above the clear area, hidden in the clouds, but still
pretty low. Pondering over the bright spot and looking at the
geometry I came to a surprising (at least for me) conclusion - the
spot is caused by the reflected sunlight in some water body.
The movement of the spot in a few minutes, receding from me as
the sun rose, confirmed that this is the probable cause.
I took as accurate angles and positions as this is possible on a
lightrail station with no special measurement equipment and a bunch
of people staring at me, wondering what the strange gestures and
waving hands at the sky mean. When I got to work I checked the
maps of the area and was very surprised to find that the culprit
is most probably San Luis Reservoir! Wow!
- Alex
Received on Fri Oct 29 12:04:44 2004