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Flying into the sunset

Flying into the sunset

PHOTO: IAN GRIFFIN
The Latam Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flight from Sydney to Santiago passed above Dunedin yesterday.
As the setting sun shone upwards through and beyond the condensation trail from the aircraft, it cast a shadow on the clouds above the plane's route.
The phenomenon was caught by ODT Skywatch columnist Ian Griffin from his home in Portobello.
He said it was an amazing and unusual thing to see.
"It was quite an amazing sight, and it looked like a bit of a rocket launch."
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A deception in the heavens
A deception in the heavens

Otago Daily Times

time3 hours ago

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A deception in the heavens

IMAGE: IAN GRIFFIN A few Sundays ago, as the sun descended towards the hills which embrace the harbour, I stepped on to my Portobello deck to enjoy the last of the day's light. It was a crisp Dunedin evening where the sky seemed painted in soft pastels, and everything felt briefly suspended in time. Looking west, I spotted what, for a moment, appeared to be a rocket streaking skyward. A bright white line cut across the heavens, trailing from a tiny, glinting dot moving steadily above the horizon. It was, in fact, LAN Chile flight LA800, the long-haul service from Sydney to Santiago, which passed directly over Dunedin at 37,000 feet. What made the sight remarkable wasn't just the contrail - it was what the contrail did. It appeared to sit below a layer of high cloud, and on those clouds I could see a distinct, sharp shadow of the trail itself, stretching upward and back towards the plane like the contrail's dark twin. It was utterly disorienting. From the ground, it looked as if the shadow was falling up on to the clouds, as if the trail were below them. But of course, that couldn't be right. A friend pointed out the truth: the aircraft was far higher than the clouds, which were floating at around 24,000 feet. The contrail, higher up and still fully illuminated by the sun, was bright against the dusky sky. The shadow I saw was real, but it was being cast downward on to the tops of those thin, twilight-hued clouds. These kinds of illusions are surprisingly common when you spend time looking up. Bright objects - contrails, planets, even satellites - can appear closer than they are. Shadows stretch in unexpected directions. The moon sometimes looks enormous near the horizon, then shrinks when it's overhead. Our brains try to build three-dimensional stories from a two-dimensional images of the sky, and occasionally, they get it wrong. But the error is often beautiful. Skywatching is often about seeing new things, but just as often, it's about humility. The sky shows us not only beauty, but also how easily we can be fooled by it. And that, I think, is part of its magic.

Contrails at sunset an 'amazing sight'
Contrails at sunset an 'amazing sight'

Otago Daily Times

time20-07-2025

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Contrails at sunset an 'amazing sight'

PHOTO: IAN GRIFFIN The Latam Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flight from Sydney to Santiago passed above Dunedin yesterday. As the setting sun shone upwards through and beyond the condensation trail from the aircraft, it cast a shadow on the clouds above the plane's route. The phenomenon was caught by ODT Skywatch columnist Ian Griffin from his home in Portobello. He said it was an amazing and unusual thing to see. "It was quite an amazing sight, and it looked like a bit of a rocket launch."

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