Sun Pillar

Abstract

A REMARKABLY well-defined instance of this phenomenon was seen by me at this place (460 feet above mean sea-level) this afternoon. At 5.32 p.m. the sun was sinking behind a thick layer of stratus cloud. There was a bank of dust haze, so defined as almost to resemble cirrus, which apparently formed a background to the clouds. When the phenomenon was first noticed, about three-quarters of the sun's disk was below the edge of the cloud bank; and from the centre of that portion of the disk visible there rose a tall column of brilliant light, exending upwards to about 5°, of the same width as the apparent diameter of the sun, and narrowing almost to a point as it touched the sun's rim. This convergence became more marked as the rest of the disk disappeared, until at the point at which the latter was finally lost to sight the apex appeared to rest on the edge of the cloud bank. The cone-shaped part at the base of the pillar was the most luminous portion, and glowed with a brilliant orange-red tint, which gradually merged into the yellow-white of the upper part of the column. The effect lasted for some minutes after the sun's disappearance, but the pillar lost its conical base and became less defined, while the clouds receding gave the appearance of the base of the pillar having risen in the sky.