Merle,
Do you ever see the shadow of the earth? I see it before sunrise, and after
sunset, while the earth's shadow is being CAST INTO THE AIR.
The top edge of the shadow gets higher in the east as the sun sinks further
under the horizon in the west, and the shadow gets lower in the west as the sun
rises toward the east horizon before sunrise.
The air must be very clear to see it. But I've seen it wherever I have lived,
on most nights: from New York City, to mountains in the Andes, to the desert of
Arizona.
Don't miss this if you have not seen it.
You can be sure you are seeing it if it gets higher WITH TIME in the East after
sunset, or lower in the West before sunrise. But you have to look away for a
few minutes and then look again, otherwise you will not see that it has moved
if you look continuously.
You will see some color variation in the dark shadow, too, compared with the
rest of the sky near it. The top of the shadow is often a little red: YOUR
painterly eye will detect this, I am sure.
To see this, the sky can't be very dark, because then the shadow is up too high.
You know another word for the shadow of the earth? It is an ancient word:
"Night".
--Joe
PS If you have a video camera with an intervalometer, you can take a
time-lapse sequence of the motion of the shadow. Try to defeat the camera's
auto-exposure feature, though, or the shadow will be washed-out. You could try
a series of still pictures to show the motion of the shadow, too. When the
shadow is too high in the sky, you can't really see it, because then it's going
through just a few miles of air: but when it's near the horizon, it may be
going through several tens of miles of air. Your photographer spouse might
want to see and photograph this. But, see what you can see! You might paint
it.
> Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote:
>
> Subject: EARTH:
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