Golden Gate from Marin, 2 may 1996

I have (crudely)marked some of the more interesting effects in this shot. The lines furthest to the left with the "V" show the location of the "Girdle of Venus". Thats really its name, I didn't make it up! The dark area is the Earth's shadow. The dust and haze in the atmosphere looks darker, because for that region of the air, the sun is behind the Earth. This is a common effect, and is seen on almost any clear morning or evening.

The other lines show the locations of the Crepuscular Rays. (or more correctly, Anticrepuscular Rays) These are more rare. These can be seen at sunset or sunrise, and are formed in a similar way, but the shadows being seen are those of clouds or mountains.

I am not sure if the rays are from clouds or mountains. I can't remember if we had clouds to the West that day. I suspect they are the shadows of the mountains of the Marin Headlands to the Northwest of Golden Gate. The "rays" are nearly parallel, but those on the opposite side of the sky from the sun seem to converge on the Antisolar Point because of perspective. The Antisolar Point(the point on the sky exactly opposite that of the Sun) is marked by a cross. That is the point that the Moon would be in if it were exactly full, so you can see that may claim that the picture was taken hours before the Full Moon is true.

Most of the time, the Moon would pass just to the north or south of the Antisolar Point. If the Moon hits it spot on, we get the spectacle of a Lunar Eclipse. I located the Antisolar Point