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Undulating red dots on the window
 

Have you ever seen these vagaries of sunlight reflection? It was about 3 weeks ago in a sunny afternoon, when my wife called me to see some unusual reddish reflection from the south window.
I moved to the west window through which I could see something unusual occurring over the south window showing a lot of reddened undulating spots similar to red flower corollas! These two windows are located perpendicularly to each other with the south window facing the lake, and only through the west window I could see these unusual reflection, which appeared to contain innumerable bright shining red dots waving constantly, obviously reflecting the lake waves.
There were gentle winds and small waves over the lake, but I didn't see any red waves in the lake. I took some photos of this reflection. Then I went out to take more photos of these two windows from the back yard and of the lake waves.
I came indoors to see the same reflection, and this time I tried to enlarge the images by moving closer to the south window, but not very successful because of the insect screens installed just outside every window, only offering blurred images due to the overlapping latticeworks.
I also took videos to prove that the red dots were actually moving and fluctuating. I believe that these flowery things were actually reflection of individual waves, which acted as prisms to scatter the sunlight into the seven original colors and to select the red color having the longest wavelength for some reason unknown to me.
I had seen the same phenomenon several years ago at the same corner, so it must have been my second observation.

After this current episode, I was occasionally looking at the same window, and found the same reflection on the same window on sunny afternoons around 3: 10 P.M. on three different days.
From my simple knowledge, in certain situations it happened on the right conditions such as: Sun had to be at the right position above the lake, the waves of which should be undulating gently, so that the waves functioned as prisms.
Isaac Newton in 1672 refracted white light with a prism, resolving it into its component colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Please see the red reflection.
In order for sun to be at the right position, we have to choose the right day and right time: The first time it was Day 6 after autumnal equinox which was Sept 22, 2016 at 3:30 PM. Every time it was seen around mid-afternoon or slightly later.
I think at this time of the year the sun should be tilted slightly to the south after the equinox when the sun is supposed to be exactly from the east to the west without deviation. I might try to observe the same phenomenon next spring prior to the vernal equinox 2017 again around mid-afternoons. So I will try to observe this same reflection at 3: 30 PM, Tue, March 14, preferably six days earlier than the vernal equinox March 20, so that the sun should be tilted slightly to the south with the same degree as it was 6 days after the autumnal equinox this fall, but I could even try it on some earlier days since it appeared one or two weeks after the autumnal equinox. Please enjoy these unusual phenomena shown on the images and videos.
However my above reasoning could be entirely wrong. We shall see next spring.

 
Reflected light 1 and 2
Reflection of glass 1-1...Reflection of glass   1-4 jpg

Perpendicular window angle and Outdoor lake view
Upright view windows...Sun shining lake

Newton and the color spectrum
prism-image

Video-Reflection 1 IMG_3111 MOV


Video-Reflection 2 IMG_3116 MOV


Video- Reflection 3 IMG_3117 MOV


Video-Lake waves 4 IMG_3127 MOV
 

Reference to Almanac
Autumnal equinox(추분 秋分) 2016: Thursday September 22
Vernal equinox(춘분 春分) 2017: Monday, March 20

 
Kwan Ho Chung - October 20, 2016
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