Abstract
A REMARKABLE phenomenon, similar to that which I described in 1888 (NATURE, vol. xxxviii. p. 414), was witnessed by me on the evening of March 13. At 7h. 7m. p.m. I saw on the western sky five silvery white columns coming evidently from the sun, which set at 6h. 1m. The columns extended over the whole sky, and, like meridians on a globe, converged to a point in the eastern sky, which was about as high above the eastern horizon as the sun was below the western horizon. The sky was full of stars, a powerful wind having swept it clear; and at 7h. 25m., fifteen minutes before complete night had set in, the rays still reached the zenith. The rays cannot be straight sun rays, for the calculation of the height of the atmosphere by Alhazen's method would yield an abnormally high value, and they could not meet in the east, like meridians, but they must be curved and pass along the upper strata of the atmosphere. This is either due to reflection, or, more probably, the phenomenon is one of an electrical nature, similar to that described in NATURE of March 12 (p. 437), which has just reached me, by Dr. O'Reilly.
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BRAUNER, B. Sun Columns at Night. Nature 53, 486 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/053486c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/053486c0
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