By Mike Busch
Once again, the live Fire Island and Beyond Surf Cam stationed on top of the Davis Park Casino let me know it would be a nice sunrise. It is the first thing I check from bed, most of the time it looks completely overcast from my house with the low light but the surf cam starts lighting up about 45 minute before sunrise. Here is a screenshot from 6:30 a.m. from my phone.
I grabbed my camera and dog and headed to Smith Point Beach on Fire Island and noticed a sun pillar rising from the horizon into the sky. A sun pillar is a vertical shaft of light that extends upward (or downwards) from the sun. The light is created by the sun lighting up ice crystals drifting in the atmosphere. I captured some photos and video of the phenomenon for a few minutes as the sun rose.
What I didn’t expect was a downward facing sun pillar on page 2, which I have never seen or photographed before.
More Images and a Video on Page 2
