I discovered something pretty cool today.
While hiking this morning on the west side of Big Baldy, I looked out into the valley and saw a splash of light from the rising sun. I didn’t think much of it until I looked behind me and noticed that the sun had not peeked over the mountains yet.
So I looked back at the sunlight hitting the valley and I noticed something. Check out the shape of the light. It is thinnest closer to Provo Canyon and gets much wider the further away from the canyon that it gets.
It dawned on me, pun intended, that the light was funneling through the canyon almost like what a flashlight would do. If you point it on the ground ahead of you, it is thinnest closest to you you and widens the farther it gets away from you.
I highlighted this effect below.
As I continued to hike for the next hour, I confirmed my theory. The widening continued and the left hand tip of the light inched closer and closer to the canyon until the sun was high enough to shine over all of the mountains.
I know this is a very geeky thing to enjoy. But I sure enjoyed the heck out of it.
I am going to go out before dawn one morning and do a time lapse of the entire process.
Let me know what you think.
The Umenum 