Land of Multiple Suns
May 06, 2009
Photographer: John Adam
Summary Author: John Adam
Move over, Tatooine; in this land there are many Suns! While raking in my back yard near Norfolk, Virginia, I glanced up and noticed these reflections from a slightly silvered, glass garden globe. Needless to say I put down the rake and went over to investigate and experiment with different observing positions. At the time, the Sun was at an altitude of no more than 50 degrees. I sketched the ray diagrams for the four brightest “suns” shown in the picture. One is a direct reflection from the front surface, a second results from a single reflection on the back surface, and the two others are formed by two such reflections. There are, of course, other fainter images from other multiple reflections. Photo taken in early April, 2009 with an Olympus SP-570 UZ digital camera.
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