Sunlight through the clouds

Wordsmith.org

What is the word for the effect seen when rays of sunlight break through the clouds, giving a heavenly feeling to objects below?

in the bridges of madison county, (what an awful place to site!-- but i do read trashy novels every once in a while!)

the photographer talks about such light as "god light" and his boss loves its.. it sells calendars!

but god light works.. it make you feel like gods love is shining right down on you. -- and it was used by artist to the same effect, in oil paintings.. with the same type of sunlight shining down on the saint, or virgin or baby jesus.

Dear dmkoelle: There is a phenomenon called the "glory", but I am not sure that is what you are referring to.

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF2/282.html

sunbeam or sun-ray

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Once more tsuwm's poetic essence breaks forth

These are all good suggestions, but I'm looking for something a bit less obvious. I believe it was actually one of the AWAD words at some point last year - perhaps the weekly theme was "little-known words for everyday things" or something similar.

Here is a picture the photographer called a "sunburst".

http://www.shuttercity.com/ViewComments.cfm?PhotoID=32746

In one of the lecture auditoriums of my college the lighting is terribly uneven. Some students call the seats with direct light "Jesus seats."

I dunno what you call the sunlight when it breaks through a hole in the clouds, but in architecture such a hole in the ceiling is sometimes placed and that hole is called an oculus.

Sunburst regards,
DubDub
Edit:0 Just because it's interesting from AHD:

vNOUN: Inflected forms: pl. oc�u�li (-l)
Architecture An eyelike opening or ornament, especially: a. A round window. b. A circular opening at the apex of a dome.
ETYMOLOGY: Medieval Latin, from Latin, eye. See okw- in Appendix I.

You put your finger right on it, Bill. The effect of the sun streaming through a hole in the clouds is called a glory. It's most effective when the sun is at least halfway up or down from the horizon, not directly or nearly overhead.

Hi BYB, glad to see you. Oh, thanks you guys. I've seen some rather impressive glories in my day and all I could think to call them is "Oh, my!"

Welcome aBoard, dmkoelle, and...thank you SO much: now you're going to have me scratching my head in wonderment all night...

Try as I might, I can't come up with it. Glory hasn't been an AWAD word, unfortunately.

when rays of sunlight break through the clouds (colours mine ... oh ha ha!)

What a colourful start, dmkoelle! WELCOME!

There's a few interesing words coming up. Glory seems a bit bland to me, although it is scientific (if Dr Bill's site is correct).

Thanks for posting your question here, it should be fun figuring out more words for this phenomenon.

I've seen some rather impressive glories in my day...

What a coincidence. I've seen some rather impressive days in all my glory.

glory, from dr. bill's link, didn't sound like the same phenomenon at all....

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You are right tswum.[Geez, isn't he most of the time?] The "sunburst picture isn't quite right either. How about this one?
http://www.shuttercity.com/ShowPhoto.cfm?PhotoID=35358
Or this one where it appears that the photographer was standing in the sunshaft
http://www.shuttercity.com/ShowPhoto.cfm?PhotoID=34099

This one is quite nice, too.
http://www.shuttercity.com/ShowPhoto.cfm?PhotoID=36489

Thanks to everyone who has sent me a nice warm welcome! :)

Hi, dmkoelle. Many landscape paintings from the 19th century used the device of sunlight bursting through clouds to provide the basis for unusual sun-based effects on the rest of the scene. This style is called herculean. I was looking at several of JMW Turner's paintings at the Tate Britain last weekend which used just this herculean approach. Dunno if it's the word you're after, however.

A friend of mine, who is a meteorologist, always referred to this phenomenon as sun dogs.

sun dogs.

Sun dogs are not just plain light shining through clouds. They occur when there are suspended ice particles in the air and they are two bright spots on either side of the sun. This phenomenon is very familiar to people from Winnipeg but probably not people from, say, Perth! (It may be a YART, but it was easy for me to explain anyway.) Here's an URL: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~mgb/polepiccies/99092sU.jpg

I read a book (paperback 1979) called Sacajawea (sp?)
about the famous Indian maiden .... in it the author describes the light breaking through clouds and is a physical presence touching the earth through which the maiden walks!
The author describes it just beautifully. Wish I could give you more about the book and the phenomena but I think this is the 'glory" Dr. Bill is talking about!

Mercy me, dmkoelle, you sure started off with a bang! Welcome! Keep up the good work.