Giant red ball in the sky

This morning at 7.20 or so the sky was quite dark with only the vaguest slivers of pink from the sunrise. As we walked towards the station , our usual view of the mountains was totally obscured by mist and rainclouds.

However towards the sea, the sun was rising like a giant ball of fire over the yachts. I was glad we were a bit early for my son's train as it meant i could take a few shots of the sunrise.

The huge sun is an effect of it being close to the horizon so i wasn't expecting it to turn out as well as it did. Though the sun looked much larger to the human eye than the camera, the picture still shows how huge it appeared to be.

The sun [and moon] look larger to the human eye near the horizon becuase there is an optical illusion that makes it look bigger as well as an optical effect caused by refraction of the sun or moonlight through the atmosphere. Its a phenomenon that is still beeing puzzled over as apparently some people don't ever see much difference in the size of the sun or moon regardless of position in the sky.




A few minutes later the sky was beginning to lighten as the sun rose higher into the sky.




After another 10-15 minutes [while we were inside the station waiting for the train] , the sky cleared completely and the deep orange colours had gone, leaving only a slight blush on the clouds.


photos
sunrise
dawn