Sun pillars

Last night's Edinburgh sky

I love the sky. I love it at night. I love it during the day.
I especially love it when day becomes night, or night becomes day.
I used to teach paragliding as a slightly unhinged career choice, and it meant the sky was our playground with invisible hazards and wonderful bonanzas. We watched the sky all the time because understanding it kept us safe. I am addicted to sky in all varieties.

Last night’s sunset was curbumfuld by a very rude grey wodge of cloud moving in from the east, smothering the flame. Above the position of the sun was a very strong Sun Pillar created by refracted sunlight in the ice crystals of the high cirrus clouds.

(Bear with me here - I needed help describing the way the pillar of light moves across the landscape above the horizon and remembered the type of car speedometer that had a vertical line thing that moved smoothly across a nearly horizontal gauge. I’ve just wasted 15 minutes trying to find which car etc - one of you will surely know what I mean cos Google certainly doesn’t. Is it broken?)

I left straight after sunset, but on the way home I was reminded of that advice to always stay a good half hour after the sun has gone, cos that’s when the magic happens. I was lucky to have Barclay Kirk on my local horizon as the high cirrus cloud glowed, lit from the sun that was well below the horizon, subdued behind the lower cumulus cloud - and with that dial of a sun pillar moving across the landscape like a vintage X? speedometer, mimicking the spire of the kirk.
Maybe see you out there.
TD