Clean Air
Images by
Elmar Schmidt 12000m (39,000ft) over Southern Germany on June 20, 2011 on his return from Namibia to research lunar eclipse darkness. ©Elmar Schmidt, shown with permission
The image is noteworthy for what is not visible.
The sun is eclipsed by the wing of the Air Namibia Airbus. Its presence is only weakly apparent by rimes of light reflected and/or diffracted by the curved wing surface.
We almost never see this sight from lower down in our dusty, water droplet and aerosol laden troposphere. The sun is usually surrounded by an extremely bright aureole.
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