Eugene Oregon: A mass of haze moving in from the south-southwest gave us a modest sun pillar just before sunset this evening, as well as a faint rainbowish sundog to the north. (A sun pillar is a beam of light extending from the position of the sun (which in this case was hidden by the encroaching clouds) toward the zenith; a sundog is a patch of bright light usually about where the 22-degree halo would intersect an arc drawn through the position of the sun and parallel to the horizon.)

Nice display for Oregon.

Didn't see a sun pillar tonight, but did see something sorta similar...

I live near the Kansas State Prison which has some REALLY bright halogen lights. Driving home tonight, through a fairly good snowstorm, we could see huge pillars of light going straight up from the lights through the snow and hitting the cloud layer, really cool.

Well, okay, maybe this doesn't belong on the board, or even this thread, but they WERE pillar of lights. lol. And probably caused by basically the same thing as a sun pillar. And nearly as cool looking too...

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"Ignorance has caused more calamity than malignity" H.G. Wells

"Getting lost is part of exploring." Uniqua in "Backyardigans-Heart of the Jungle"

Or it does belong on the board as an examply of light polution--if the light end up illuminating clouds it would wash out stars on a clear/slightly hazy night....

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"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." — Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

441!!!! :)

It definetly is light pollution, lol.

When they first put up the lights 15 years ago I nearly died, the visibility in my back yard is horrible now and it was very dark. (and I have a street light in my front yard, thanks to my father who was on the street lighting committee and thought he was doing me a favor) [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]

They do provide some neat shows on their own though, like last night. When the snow is really heavy there's this gentle orange/pink glow that seems to eminate from everywhere. It happened on Valentines day. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

I'd still rather have dark skies... (But then again, when there is an escape, I'm glad they are so bright...) lol

__________________
"Ignorance has caused more calamity than malignity" H.G. Wells

"Getting lost is part of exploring." Uniqua in "Backyardigans-Heart of the Jungle"