Distorted Archives - Bliss Photographics

Burning Barn Sunrise

Looks like the aftermath of Captain Kirk having used his phaser weapon on my Morton Building. …. Actually a rising sun through HIGHLY Turbulant clouded air mass that got creative with the actual round shape. Since the sun is still below actual line of sight, the light being bent around the planet by the “atmospheric lens”. Red and Yellow light the only to arrive at my photon traps.

Certain Atmospheric Conditions create very unusual distortions of the sun. I watch somewhere around 500 sunrises/sunsets a year up here in my work. Give or take according to weather window whims. Now I’m counting a sunrise and 1 and a sunset as another one here. I work the light when ever it appears to need working lolol.

The number of distortions I see this severe is a few every other year or so. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a building shape. If you look really hard…I imagine an RV moving away right in the yellow shape but that is pushing it lololol. The sculpted edges were moving real time though the lens live.

The atmosphere was absolutely “ROILLING” boiling, distorting, mirage (ish). Looking at an area of sky smaller than your thumb on an outstretched arm, this 1200 mm magnification image is a very small portion of the sky. The sun, on the other hand, subtends an angle of approximately 0.52° (31 arc-minutes) to an observer on the Earth. It’s amazing and a striking coincidence. By sheer chance, it is almost the same as the angle subtended by the moon. I digress, this image is 1.5 degrees wide. It’s a pretty small slice of a 360 degree pie that morning 😀👀📸📸

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

Title: Burning Barn Sunrise

Distorted Sunrise Early Winter Ridgeline

This was taken on the morning of 11/06 (Wednesday) Exactly at sunrise. I don’t fully understand hoe this sun formed but I’ll give you my theory.. “Distorted Sunrise Early Winter Ridgeline” This was a new one to me.

FIrst of all the sky was lit up pretty well through about 15 minutes of late civil twilight. So I’m watching the clock having picked my spot based on compass direction and brightness. I would point out this is EXACTLY what I was seeing through the eyepiece. At the right place at the right time this blob rose that I could have easily looked at with my naked eye. This is not a particulary bright scene which is why there is so much definition in trees.

No glare at sunrise with a “sun” must be rare. I have this on two cameras at different magnifications and framing. I have only finished this one as of yet. This was a dark scene with little light for right at sunrise. Just color and not brightness if that makes sense.

Theory

The Distorted Sun is of course sending light through hundreds of miles of atmosphere, storms, clouds etc. We actually only see a line of sight sun when it’s up somewhere ABOVE the horizon, any sun touching the horizon is actually below the line of sight. The atmospheric lens bends the suns image around thee horizon to your eye well below the line of sight.

This sun is distorted the absolute heck out of it by that “air lens”. I have not in thousands of observed/photographed sunrises/sunsets seen anything like this before. This is by far a very odd blob for a sunrise. The “sun” disappeared into the cloud banks and more or less shut down this show. I had maybe 20 seconds to get two cameras involved.

I’ve seen very formal distortions in the suns image. Stretched with a vertical elongation or sawtoothed edges I’ve seen. MIrage of the suns edge from bending around the earths surface real time I’ve watched. But I’ve never seen a blob with such color and shape? Never in my career. 😲 (Shaking head).

Filed under weird things I see working “Wyotana Skies”.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Title: Distorted Sunrise Early Winter Ridgeline