@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social
Post #3308842
2026-06-13 11:43 UTC
My private Newgrange 🌞
As we approach the northern summer solstice, we get to see sunlight flooding into parts of our house it normally doesn’t reach.
We live in a steep-sided valley & at certain times of the day, houses on the other side with angled roof windows line up with the Sun & reflect it horizontally into our living room.
And as the house doing it today has two such windows, we get double shadows 🙂
#Heidelberg 🏰
#Photography 📷
#LightPainting 🎨
Replies (1)
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@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social 2026-06-13 11:50
What’s also interesting from an optics perspective is that given the size & distance of those reflecting windows, they subtend a smaller angle than the Sun itself does. Because of that, the rays of light are more parallel & cast sharper shadows than direct sunlight does. You see a similar effect during the partial phase of solar eclipse. As the Moon comes close to covering the Sun, only a sliver of the Sun is illuminating things, & shadows it casts become very noticeably sharper.