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Sunset on a Golden Sea

Explanation: On April 17, the sky was clear and the Sun's colour was spectacular as night approached. This striking telescopic view even captures the Sun's swollen and distorted shape from the southern coast of the UK. Reflecting a bright column of sunlight, the sea also appears golden, with the horizon marked by the city of Portsmouth. Were the colours made more intense by volcanic dust? Maybe not. Normally, sunset (and sunrise) colours can be still be very dramatic, especially when the atmosphere is clear and the Sun is viewed very near the horizon, as in this scene. But large dust particles, like those in the airline thwarting ash clouds from the erupting Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, tend to create diffuse and subdued sunset colours.

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Is this real? Wouldn't the light on the water be reflected brightly in line with the sun, with the edges darker?

Benbrilling wrote:Is this real? Wouldn't the light on the water be reflected brightly in line with the sun, with the edges darker?

The reflection of the sun or moon on ocean waves is considerably larger than the size of the objects themselves.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090616.html

Today's telephoto shot is too narrowly focused to pick up your edge darkening.

Just one nit-picking detail since APOD is pretty fastidious about defining things correctly: The UK consists of 4 countries--England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and which include a lot of smaller islands--like the Orkneys, Hebrides and Shetlands. Plus a lot of great whiskey. “Southern coast of the UK” doesn’t cut it for me. But, within view of Portsmouth--OK, England.

I don't see the problem. The UK is an identifiable geo-political entity which can therefore have a southern coast. The fact that a sub-section of the entity also has that same coast is valid but does not invalidate the UK having the coast. Unless you think the UK is not a valid entity? (A subject for another forum, no doubt.)

Rob

While I agree with rstevevson, I'm glad that planetquinn brought the subject up - you just never know what you might learn here in the hallowed halls of dear ol' APOD. It had never occurred to me before that the UK was anything else but England.

Volcanos in south east asia in the early 1990s created fantastic sunsets in Australia for months - very similar to this.

APOD Robot wrote:Were the colours made more intense by volcanic dust? Maybe not. Normally, sunset (and sunrise) colours can be still be very dramatic, especially when the atmosphere is clear and the Sun is viewed very near the horizon, as in this scene.

Nonetheless, I would not agree with APOD Robot. I'm living in Austria and have a quite clear view of sunset and sunrise. And I noticed that the sunset and sunrise never were so red before. They always appeared orange or pale-pink, but never so dark-red.

Hofi wrote: I would not agree with APOD Robot. I'm living in Austria and have a quite clear view of sunset and sunrise. And I noticed that the sunset and sunrise never were so red before. They always appeared orange or pale-pink, but never so dark-red.

You bet your BP!