Today I ran across two incredible sets of images. The first is a set of “solargraphs” from a New Scientist story (via The Bad Astronomer). The photographer, Justin Quinnell, exposed a pinhole camera for 6 months. The resulting image tracks the sun as it moves across the sky. Each track is the motion of the sun over the course of a day, and the different tracks show how it moves through the seasons. The trick, of course, is finding a place where a camera can sit undisturbed for 6 months. If you have that, then the article tells you how to take your own. I smell science project.
The second, which I found linked at Swans on Tea, is a set of pictures of Fire Rainbows, a phenomena I’d never even heard about before. These are incredibly rare, requiring cirrus clouds with ice crystals aligned just so while the sun is at a particular angle, but the result is beyond spectacular. If you painted this for a class you’d be flunked for making something so unrealistic.
Take a look at the full sets; both are breathtaking.
Peculiar Velocity 