Mont-Mégantic Sunset

January 28, 2005

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Provided and copyright by: Guillaume Poulin
Summary authors & editors: Guillaume Poulin; Jim Foster

The above photo showing a glorious, tricolor sunset atop Mont-Mégantic in Quebec, Canada was captured on July 7, 2004. It was definitely the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. It was taken at 1,105 m (3,625 ft) above sea level, where the largest telescope in northeastern North America is found -- the 1.6 m telescope of the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic. These vibrant colors resulted from the fortuitous positioning of altostratus clouds (primarily), just as the Sun was reaching the horizon. The greater path-length of sunlight at sunset or sunrise effectively scatters blue and green colors, leaving the longer wavelength yellows, oranges and reds to paint the sky.

Photo details: Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera, 1/215 s at F5, 100 ISO.

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