(urth) Hunter of the East

[Jeff Wilson]

On 11/13/2011 8:48 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>  > The sky is not a reflection. You are imagining a mirror, and a
> refection, all your own.
>  > You are creating your own poem here.
> The ‘noose of light’ around the turret is reflected sunlight. It’s not
> exactly a conventional mirror, but when you see it you *are* seeing the
> Sun.

I think you are reaching here, Gerry, and if it's to make a point that 
point is eluding me.

There might be a reflected image of the sun visible *in* the surface of 
a turret, but I don't see how the reflection could surround the turret 
without some further, smooth background object to cast the reflection. 
If the sunlight need only be reflected by anything to count as letting 
the observer see the sun, then *everything* not self-luminous shows us 
the sun, and the distinction of the noose is meaningless.

Perhaps the noose is the circular limb of the solar disc itself, or the 
refractory halo in the atmosphere, with the suiltan's turret silhouetted 
against it. Some representative photos:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111112.html

http://www.upiu.com/other/2011/03/19/Ecuador-atmospheric-phenomena-seen-around-the-sun/UPIU-1301300519322/

(this last includes a sundog mentioned earlier, but the central area of 
luminosity is what I had in mind)

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at clueland.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >