Sound Politics: Halo, Seattle (Updated)

November 21, 2008

Halo, Seattle (Updated)

(That pun was so bad I couldn't resist it.)

And I thought you might like the picture, even with the pun.

More on sun halos here. And, if you know that this halo is 22 degrees away from the sun, then you were paying attention in science class.

Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.

(There is probably a fine explanation of this halo, and much else, in this book, but I haven't received my review copy yet, so I can't be sure.)

More: Professor Mass tells me that what you see in that picture (not counting Seattle) is "a halo in a cirostratus cloud deck . . . and something called crepuscular rays". And he tells me that you can find that information, and much else, in his new book.

Posted by Jim Miller at November 21, 2008 02:52 PM | Email This

Comments

1. The obligatory, "Halo to you, too."

Beautiful picture and a budding beautiful new career as cartoonist.

Posted by: swatter on November 21, 2008 03:31 PM

2. Very nice Friday, end-of-week pic, Jim. Relaxing...before the madness of 'football'. :)

Posted by: Duffman on November 21, 2008 03:59 PM

3. Someone once said, "living in Seattle is like being in love with a beautiful woman who is sick all the time".

I don't think he meant the political climate but that could apply as well.

Beautiful photograph.

Posted by: Bill Cruchon on November 21, 2008 04:42 PM

4. Those are called crepuscular rays. They combine the physical process of scattering with the optical phenomenon of perspective. Sunlight travels in straight lines but when projected onto the spherical surface of the overhead sky the lines form great circles which seem to diverge from the sun.

If you look to the east, you may see a re-convergence of the ray traces to form what are called, logically enough, anticrepuscular rays.

I knew those grad courses in astrophysics would be useful one day...:-)

Posted by: Interested Observer on November 21, 2008 05:53 PM

5. Dang. Actually kind of disappointed Jim.

I was expecting Halo Seattle to be a new edition to the first person shooter game...

Posted by: Don Ward on November 22, 2008 12:05 AM

6. Very nice photo - Halo Seattle. Prof. Mass would also say that the jury is out on global warming after this relatively cool year - if the next two years are similar, much of the hot air flatulated by Anthropogenic Global warming alarmist will sucked out their pieholes.

Speaking of the madness of football, how about those OSU
Beavers ? One win away from the Rose Bowl !!

Posted by: KS on November 22, 2008 10:38 PM

7. Very nice photo - Halo Seattle. Prof. Mass would also say that the jury is out on global warming after this relatively cool year. If the next two years are similar, much of the hot air flatulated by Anthropogenic Global warming alarmists will sucked out their pieholes and Al Gore's stock will start to deteriorate like the stock market is currently undergoing.

Speaking of the madness of football, how about those OSU
Beavers ? One win away from the Rose Bowl !!

Posted by: KS on November 22, 2008 10:39 PM

8. It should read...much of the hot air flatulated by Anthropogenic Global warming alarmists will be sucked out of their pieholes.

Posted by: KS on November 22, 2008 10:41 PM

9. 3. Someone once said, "living in Seattle is like being in love with a beautiful woman who is sick all the time".
Posted by Bill Cruchon at November 21, 2008 04:42 PM

Bill, I used to say living in Port Townsend was like being in love with a beautiful woman who is mentally ill.

Posted by: Mr. Cynical on November 24, 2008 07:45 AM

10. Mind sharing the optical details? Lens type, focal length, shutter speed, etc.? Any post processing done to the image? Just curious, camera geek here.

Posted by: TedR on November 24, 2008 12:06 PM

11. Ted - I used a Panasonic FZ8 in its "sunset" scene mode and then cropped the picture a little. As I recall, I had the zoom at or close to its maximum wide angle, which is equivalent to about 38 mm on a 35 mm SLR.

If I were to do it again, I would use the sunset mode, and try several alternatives, including a "raw" shot or two. But the scene was changing fairly quickly, and I was trying to frame the picture before it got away.

Here's a little more:

Image Type: jpeg (The JPEG image format)
Width: 3072 pixels
Height: 2304 pixels
Camera Brand: Panasonic
Camera Model: DMC-FZ8
Date Taken: 2008:11:18 16:41:25
Exposure Time: 1/799 sec.
ISO Speed Rating: 100
Flash Fired: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode.
Metering Mode: Pattern
Exposure Program: Normal program
Focal Length: 6.0 mm
Software: Ver.1.0

Posted by: Jim Miller on November 24, 2008 12:26 PM

12. You mean that pretty sky isn't Obama farting moonbeams? Who knew?

Posted by: D.W. Drang on November 24, 2008 03:46 PM

13. That's 22.5 degrees...sorry for being persnickity. That's just something you don't often get to show off about.

The pic reminds me of a bullitin I got from a guy named Mike on myspace. He's got a thing called "verse of the day". Today I actually read it. It basically said God has a way of letting us know what types of "successes" He wants to see from us. It reminded me of Joe Biden saying "paying taxes is patriotic". No it isn't.

Yet we have this serial plagiarist who's the next Vice President telling us it is. We have Obama telling us it's better to have government take the fruits of your toil so it can "spread the wealth". Well, that goes against everything that made God smile on us for over 200 years.

One might look at Biden and Obama and say they are successful. But when you consider what they stand for, what happens with their endorsement, like abortion, like socialism, like what goes on in San Fransicko every day; you realize what this "verse of the day" was saying. It's saying "you may think you are successful, but you are not unless God thinks you are because you are doing HIS work, not YOUR work.

I'm not especially religious, but Mike's verse just struck me as appropriate.

Posted by: scott on November 25, 2008 04:48 PM