What's this?

[Darin Brunin]

Again, the photo was taken looking to the southeast. There can be nothing on the eastern horizon creating shadows at sunset whether above or below the horizon because it is not possible.

anticrepuscular rays converge in the opposite direction and you must have your back to the sun or sunset point to see them. They appear to converge towards the antisolar point, the point on the sky sphere directly opposite the sun. [/b]

 

[Rob Satkus]

Again, the photo was taken looking to the southeast. There can be nothing on the eastern horizon creating shadows at sunset whether above or below the horizon because it is not possible.
[/b]

The shadow is coming from behind the photographer,....to the west.

RS

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Best showing I've personally seen....
http://ww2.convectionconnection.com:8080/C...04/crw_9526.htm (looking W)
http://ww2.convectionconnection.com:8080/C...04/crw_9520.htm (looking ESE)

Aaron

 

[Susan Strom]

Those are beautiful.

I would say the first example is of anticrepuscular rays. I have seen those too on the opposite side of the sky from the setting sun, one time in the borderlands near some high mountains. Clear skies that day too in southern Arizona.

 

[B Ozanne]

I swear nobody reads the posts before adding their own comment.

She is looking southeast, away from the setting sun. Let's take that as fact and go from there. Another fact, the full moon rises opposite the setting sun. If you play around with a flashlight you can figure out how that works. From what I can tell that is a full or close to full moon in the photo.

This is a photo of a mountain shadow, from www.sundog.clara.co.uk:

Mountain Shadow Example

This is identical to what is happening in the photo. Except, remove the mountain and insert a cloud. That is creating the V shaped shadow.

 

[Robert Dewey]

From:
http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/skywide.htm
The shadows/rays can reach all the way across the sky to the horizon opposite the sun, as the photo at the above link shows. Due to perspective, the shadow gets narrower, just like a road on wide-open flat terrain.

Pretty impressive to look at when it happens.
[/b]

Looks like Dan called it at the beginning of the thread.

 

[Dave Kaplow]

The shadow and anticrepuscular arguments are both correct. I think technically the phenomenon in the photo probably is indeed anticrepuscular rays, it's just that in this case there are only two large rays, one on either side, and they're being caused by a shadow in the middle, probably of a storm but maybe a mountain (I don't know the geography of Grand Cayman so I can't rule it out).

 

[B Ozanne]

I don't know anything about crepuscular rays, halos, earth shadows or the northern lights, but I am pretty sure I got this thing figured out: