How can the sun still be visible, even though it already has set? Strong refraction of light is happening in this case, where enough of the sky below the horizon is bent into a visible layer just above the horizon, to keep a flattened image of the sun visible. The bottom image represents the fleeting last second of this curious process, before all parts of the solar orb lie too far down for the direct light to be bent visibly around the earth’s curved surface. Lake Huron is in the foreground and Lake Michigan is at rear, since the image was taken along the Straits of Mackinac. [Another fine “flat sun” example appeared before both eyeballs and lens a year and a half later and much farther south.]
Mackinaw City MI (17 Jul 7) Looking NW
45.7885, -84.7319“Flat Sun” from Michigan
How can the sun still be visible, even though it already has set? Strong refraction of light is happening in this case, where enough of the sky below the horizon is bent into a visible layer just above the horizon, to keep a flattened image of the sun visible. The bottom image represents the fleeting last second of this curious process, before all parts of the solar orb lie too far down for the direct light to be bent visibly around the earth’s curved surface. Lake Huron is in the foreground and Lake Michigan is at rear, since the image was taken along the Straits of Mackinac. [Another fine “flat sun” example appeared before both eyeballs and lens a year and a half later and much farther south.]
Mackinaw City MI (17 Jul 7) Looking NW
45.7885, -84.7319