The sun rises to the east, and the sun sets to west. We all know this,right? But tonight as I was leaving Bear Lake, where I spent my Labor Day weekend with a friend, I saw the most glorious eastern sunset. Beautiful pink rainbow sky, it truly looked like the sun had set on the east side of the lake. I sent the picture to my friend and joked about the sun setting to the east. Being a scientist he had to tell me that that the sun didn't set in the east (duh! LOL) and that I was really seeing a reflection. Besides being a scientist my friend is also Japanese, and he told my that the Japanese name for this phenomena is 'yuuyake'. Being a scientist type as well I had to do a little research, as I knew no simple English word that described this... what I found out was that the dark blue band just about the horizon, is the "Earth Shadow" , and the pinkish rainbow of reflected light is the "Belt of Venus". I found a nice explanation of the phenomenon here. Fun new knowledge for me tonight!
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