Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Subtropical Sunsets

So there I was, at 33 degrees North latitude. As everyone knows, the Tropic of Cancer is located at 23.5 degrees North. (No, I didn't know that. I had some vague idea.) Normally I hang out in the forties.

I mention this because, my second night there, I was invited to dinner. We sat out on the deck overlooking the ocean, and our hostess remarked, "It's time for sunset."

Well, okay. I've seen plenty of sunsets. I glanced over -- yes, there's the sun above the ocean, very pretty. I looked again just a couple minutes later and the thing had moved. Sunsets don't do that where I come from. You could literally watch it setting. The word I used for its motion was "Bloop." It just went "bloop" and was gone.

Does the sun rise just as fast? I don't know. Everything out there faces west.

1 comment:

Roxmary said...

I have watched the sun rise from Cadillac Mt in Acadia National Park. It is amazing how fast it comes up. If you look away to another part of the sky, when you return to the sun it has popped up.