Phoebus' cart hath gone round

Just after dawn, the west of the valley catches the first rays of the rising sun. The highest point of the ridge is over 10,000 feet of elevation, which is over 7,000 feet above the valley floor. It takes another hour for the sun to rise above the escarpment and light the knoll, by which time the light is much whiter. The valley floor is still in shadow below the western escarpment. Finally the sun apears over the escarpment and floods the valley with white sunlight at around 5,600 Kelvin in color temperature. In the middle of the day it became necessary to retreat behind a street sign, which made a handy lens shade, while I took pictures of the jets flying high overhead to and from Las Vegas. Later in the day the afternoon sunshine lights up the escarpment and the western valley wall falls into shadow.

Persons sleuthing the file names will realize that the sequence is jumbled over two days—no matter, sometimes a story is greater than the sum of its parts. The post title came to me out of the blue: no wordplay intended. I think the inspiration was 'Comus' by John Milton, but the final choice of words was a reordering of a line from the 'play within a play' in 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare. I am sure my former English Literature Master, the fêted Adrian Barnes, would be astounded to discover that he left an impression on me with either of these two works: at the time he was convinced I was not paying attention. The equally fêted Carl Jex, Physics Master, was equally convinced that I was not paying attention during his lecture on measuring light. At the time, I thought they were both right. It seems we were all wrong. It's a funny old game, edmacation.

 

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