Sunrise Over Atlanta

November 1, 2006

This is a sunrise sequence over Riverside Elementary School on South Gordon Road, Austell. It is a view of downtown Atlanta with the two prominent buildings on the left being on or near North Avenue. These images span the time from 6:55 to 7:03 AM.

There was a nice pink sky and a wide view of Atlanta up to Colony Square on the left when I got to the school at about 6:38 AM.

Colony Square and the 14th Street area is at extreme left, the North Avenue are in center, and downtown Atlanta at right.

From the times registered by the camera, the sunrise from first red to clearing of the bottom of the Sun from the horizon was 3:43 . The Sun has an angular diameter of about half a degree, so it theoretically passes a given horizon line in 2 minutes. The refraction of the Sun's light gets the red light to your eye a little early, and the clearing of the horizon by the bottom of the Sun gets it in a position to not be bent as much, so it makes sense that the apparent sunrise time would be greater than 2 minutes. This data would seem to imply a refractive bending of just under half a degree.

It was a reverie to just sit and watch the Sun come up, and see the dramatic changes that took place in a span of just five minutes.